A rags-to-riches story earned through hardship

Program highlights: He went to Dalian with 50 yuan and ate only one meal a day. To save money, he ate a bowl of noodles with four heads of garlic. From a good business, he discovered an even better business. But in the better business, there were both opportunities and traps. See how Zheng Yuntao of Dalian changed his thinking time and again to realize his dream of wealth.

This is an area of sea off Dachangshan Island in Dalian. At 6 a.m., Zheng Yuntao and the divers set out to sea together to catch sea cucumbers. Today is the first harvest of 2015. Once the sea cucumbers are brought ashore, Zheng Yuntao will also welcome a group of important guests.

Reporter: Aren't you worried that you won't be able to catch any sea cucumbers?

Zheng Yuntao: I'm not worried, because there will definitely be sea cucumbers down there. If the wind is especially strong, it's hard to catch them. Today's wind is pretty good, quite nice.

The wind and waves right now aren't too rough, and Zheng Yuntao is full of confidence. The fishing boat heads to the middle of the sea, and the divers prepare to go into the water to catch sea cucumbers.

This area of sea is about 7 to 8 m deep, the most suitable depth for sea cucumbers to grow. Every year in late autumn, sea cucumbers emerge from the cracks in the rocks and lie on the reefs on the seabed. The divers catch sea cucumbers on the seabed and only return to the surface when their oxygen is almost used up. They might surface several hundred meters away. Finding them in this 100,000-mu sea cucumber farming area depends only on hearing and eyesight.

Zheng Yuntao: I just shouted. Give a shout. The one with the camera has come up.

Zheng Yuntao heard the divers' shouts and found their location. The divers brought back the sea's gift, the freshest sea cucumbers.

The reporter saw that the sea cucumbers just caught had all turned into round balls.

Zheng Yuntao: You can't even press them down, they're rock hard, as if filled with air inside. The harder it is, the thicker the flesh and the older the age. Look at the spines, like a pufferfish. In the sea it's long, and when you pull it up, it seems that after being touched, it contracts. It becomes like this.

Reporter: As soon as you touch it, it contracts?

Zheng Yuntao: In a moment it relaxes and becomes long again. The spines are one aspect, one way to judge whether a sea cucumber is good or not. Thick, blunt, upright spines show that the sea cucumber is relatively old.

Among the sea cucumbers brought up, Zheng Yuntao picked out a special one.

Zheng Yuntao: This sea cucumber has grown rather impressively. I feel it should also be a sea cucumber of more than seven years.

Reporter: A sea cucumber of more than seven years?

Zheng Yuntao: And look at this color, it has mottled coloring, black and yellow. Look at this, hard, especially hard. And the spines are long too.

As soon as the caught sea cucumbers came ashore, many people surrounded them. These consumers were the honored guests Zheng Yuntao had invited. The reason he held this sea cucumber harvest festival was to let consumers see the growing environment and quality of the sea cucumbers he sells.

Zheng Yuntao: This one is a bit tense. After being overly tense, it becomes very hard. Everyone can pinch it and see.

Consumer: I'm afraid it will bite me. No.

Some people didn't dare touch it, while others directly took a bite. Can sea cucumbers also be eaten raw?

Consumer: This is very fresh, caught from the sea.

Reporter: Can this be eaten raw directly?

Li Jun: Eaten raw. No problem.

[Wealth Classic] Wealth earned through hardship

Jiang Xisheng: Very fresh, tastes of seawater. People in Dalian eat crabs raw and shrimp alive. Crabs and shrimp can all be eaten raw. Sea cucumbers, actually, you can take them back, wash them, cut them into segments, and serve them cold dressed.

Everyone decided to buy some to take back. This consumer spent 8,400 yuan to buy 60 jin of sea cucumbers.

Reporter: How many jin are you buying?

Consumer Li Jun: Buying 60 jin. I came from the city.

Reporter: Downtown Dalian?

Li Jun: Yes, downtown Dalian. The bus ran for more than two hours, and the boat ride was more than one hour, so basically it takes almost a whole day to do this.

Reporter: You came specifically for these sea cucumbers?

Li Jun: Yes.

Today, Zheng Yuntao caught more than 5,000 jin of sea cucumbers in total. In 2014, his sales reached more than 30 million yuan. What Zheng Yuntao sells now is high-end seafood. Yet back then, he could only afford one meal a day. It was precisely because life was hard that Zheng Yuntao got the idea to start a business. From the day he started his business, he had been looking for a startup project with greater market space. How did he find projects? And how did he grow it step by step?

Zheng Yuntao: I remember the ramen used to be served in a big bowl, just 2 yuan a bowl, very affordable.

This is a ramen shop in Ganjingzi District, Dalian. In 2001, Zheng Yuntao graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University. When he came to Dalian to look for work, he came here every day to eat ramen. At that time, he had only 50 yuan. This 50 yuan was his living expenses for a month, and he had to find a job within a month. To save money, he ate only one meal a day, a 2-yuan bowl of ramen.

Reporter: With your big frame, eating only one meal a day, is one bowl of noodles enough?

Zheng Yuntao: If it's not enough, one bowl is just barely enough. Drinking more soup makes it sufficient.

To satisfy his cravings, Zheng Yuntao added chili and ate garlic when eating noodles. Even now, he still likes to eat noodles this way.

Yang Juan: Most people basically eat just one or two cloves, about that much, but the boss is a relatively big eater. He can eat four heads at a time. He himself says he has strong tastes.

One bowl of noodles, one spoonful of chili, four heads of garlic. Zheng Yuntao just wanted to use the spiciness to spur himself on. Fortunately, before he spent all 50 yuan, he found a job at an advertising company. After gaining a year of experience at the advertising company, Zheng Yuntao started his own packaging design company. From 2002 to 2008, relying on service and design quality, his company had already become one of the top three in Dalian's packaging design industry. At that time, he could net 40,000 to 50,000 yuan a day. Even though he could net 40,000 to 50,000 yuan a day, Zheng Yuntao still wanted to change industries. The design guy had his eyes on selling sea cucumbers.

Client Ni Kaishui: I said you should just do packaging well. Customers line up every day. When we go, we line up. I said your business is so good now, why change industries again?

This is a sea cucumber specialty store in Dalian. Gao Shuang is the owner of this store, and he has always had his packaging design done by Zheng Yuntao. At Zheng Yuntao's place, Gao Shuang can change packaging two or three times a year. Gao Shuang changing packaging frequently was a good business for Zheng Yuntao. Yet in this good business, he discovered an even better business: selling sea cucumbers.