In the great desert, a stubborn man digs out a different kind of wealth

Highlights: He went alone to ** to seek gold, and by chance discovered a local treasure known as "desert platinum." He vowed to become the first person in China's camel milk industry. Taking root in the desert, over five years he spent his entire fortune and nearly broke down. Single-handedly, he set out to carve a development path for an entire industry. See how Jiang Honghai completes a dramatic reversal in his life!

Host: All right, the race has begun. We are now in the second group of the one-thousand-meter camel race.

Host: All right, our riders have passed the first turn of our track.

What is being held here is the annual Camel Festival. Many of the local Kazakh herders have traveled from pastoral areas hundreds of kilometers away to take part in the camel race.

Despite the slow, plodding look camels usually have, in the eyes of Kazakh herders camels are like fine horses, able to be ridden and to run well. At full gallop, a camel can reach a speed of over 60 kilometers per hour.

Now the final sprint is underway. Go! All right, congratulations to our rider number 31.

At the Camel Festival, all the competitors are sturdy male camels.

Male camels can race and win prize money. Female camels are even more useful. That is because camel milk is the main source of income for Kazakh herders. Herders keep camels, some a few dozen head, some one or two hundred head. A single household can earn over a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand yuan a year from camel milk alone.

Yet the camel milk industry has only truly developed over the past five or six years. Before 2009, camel milk was only something local Kazakh herders ate at home, and on the market it sold for just 6 yuan per kilogram. Today camel milk sells for 20 yuan per kilogram. Many herders have prospered by raising camels, and they all have one person to thank.

That person is Jiang Honghai. He is known as the godfather of the local camel milk world. The camel milk industry grew from nothing precisely because he traveled a great distance to ** Mori and took a liking to it and developed it. While creating wealth, he also drove the local camel industry forward.

Deputy County Head Muheyati: In 2009, the camels we raised, the county-wide figure was probably around 8,000 head. Now our herders like raising camels. From 2009 to this year, our whole county has probably reached around 13,500 head of camels.

A camel produces only 1-2 kilograms of milk a day. Camel milk is hailed as the "platinum" of the desert. Many people have never drunk it or even seen it.

Herdswoman Siyiran: It is for children to drink, for old people to drink, and the rest is for us to drink ourselves. For example, when relatives or friends marry or guests come, we ferment it into a sour drink and give it to the guests.

At this year's Camel Festival, what catches the eye besides the fastest camel is also the most beautiful and highest milk-producing camel, the long-eyebrow camel.

Mori has also been designated the "Hometown of the Long-Eyebrow Camel." Back then, Jiang Honghai also took a fancy to the development prospects of the long-eyebrow camel. So just what kind of magical camel is the long-eyebrow camel?

The reporter decided to go with Jiang Honghai to the Gobi Desert to see the long-eyebrow camel.

Jiang Honghai is from Lianyungang, Jiangsu. He had always run a cotton ginning factory back home. In 2002 he came to ** to trade cotton, and in two years he earned over 800,000 yuan.

One day in June 2003, a friend invited Jiang Honghai to visit the Kazakh pastoral area of Mori. Because he was happy, he drank a few extra cups of liquor, and Jiang Honghai got so dizzy he could barely hold up. At that moment, a herder gave him a bowl of homemade sour camel milk to sober him up. Smelling the sour camel milk, Jiang Honghai drank it down half-believing.

Jiang Honghai: At the time I drank it while pinching my nose. After I drank it I had diarrhea, that first time.

Jiang Honghai asked the herder when this yogurt had been made, and the herder told him it should have been from a long time ago. Jiang Honghai was startled. He thought the yogurt must have gone bad and upset his stomach. A friend told him this was a normal reaction and it would pass in a while. Sure enough, before long Jiang Honghai felt much better.

This was Jiang Honghai's first experience of camel milk. Little did he imagine that over the next ten-plus years, his life's trajectory would be changed because of it.

After that day, Jiang Honghai learned that sour camel milk is an indispensable food for Kazakh herders at weddings and festivals. Normally the herders are reluctant to drink it themselves, and only bring it out to share when guests arrive. And sour camel milk can surprisingly still be drunk after being kept for a year.

Herder Nuerhabu: You can drink it. Just add camel milk every day, or every two or three days, and you can drink it.

Reporter: Won't it go bad after being kept for a year?

Herder Nuerhabu: No, no.

Reporter: Will it get more sour?

Herder Nuerhabu: You just add camel milk, and then you can drink it. Every day, add camel milk once every two days, and you can drink it.

After that, Jiang Honghai stayed in Mori County, negotiating business on one hand and investigating camel milk on the other. He found that there was not yet a single large camel milk enterprise on the market. What people ate most was herders' homemade sour camel milk and milk curd.

Jiang Honghai asked the elders of ** about camel milk and heard many things about its miraculous effects.

Professor Jirimutu: The camel is an animal that can live more than 70 days without eating or drinking. So all of its nutrients are passed on in its camel milk to the young camel. Therefore, these bioactive substances have many therapeutic effects, especially for illness. The first and currently most widely used one is that it is quite good at lowering blood sugar, and is very good for diabetics.

Jiang Honghai: At the time I thought, this is such a good thing. If it were made into a product and brought to market, it should work.

In order to get more authoritative data, he also went to local government departments such as the animal husbandry bureau to inquire about the development of the local camel industry. This inquiry excited him greatly, and he felt he had discovered a huge business opportunity.

Mori Kazakh Autonomous County is located north of the Tianshan Mountains. Grasslands and gobi desert are everywhere here, and every herding household keeps camels. First, because the environment is suitable; second, because this place was once a necessary passage on the ancient Silk Road, where people once raised camels in large numbers and rented them out to merchants transporting goods. Jiang Honghai also learned that in Mori County there is a magical camel, the long-eyebrow camel.

Jiang Honghai: This industry is currently a blank in China. If we develop it, it will definitely be a huge business opportunity in the future.

In November 2004, Jiang Honghai took over 1.1 million yuan and came ambitiously to ** Mori, planning to revitalize the local camel milk industry.

Jiang Honghai: What everyone else does, I absolutely will not do. Because in this camel industry, no one is doing it. If you make it succeed, maybe in the future you'll go down in history.

Jiang Honghai, envisioning great things, never imagined that this decision would, over the next five years, at one point bring him to the brink of a breakdown in life.