Bamboo fungus cultivation let him start over and harvest wealth

Program highlights: Once, because his family was in debt, he left his hometown to collect scrap and earned his first pot of gold. Because of one idea, he began to grow bamboo fungus. But he lost all his money and lost his complete family. After a gas poisoning incident, he even wanted to end it all just like that. He chose to start over, determined to succeed even if he had to bleed. Watch how Yue Jun of Zhijin County, Guizhou, started a business and became rich by growing bamboo fungus at the lowest point of his life.

The reporter came to Yue Jun's bamboo fungus cultivation base. As soon as they met, Yue Jun wanted to give the reporter a surprise.

Yue Jun: It should all be Snow White inside.

Reporter: What?

Yue Jun: Snow White.

Reporter: Where is Snow White?

Yue Jun: Inside the shed.

Reporter: Inside the shed? Then take me to see.

Yue Jun: Let's go. A lot popped up yesterday, and even more should have grown today. Wow. Take a look, take a look, you take a look. So beautiful.

Reporter: Ah, so many, there must be several hundred.

Yue Jun: Today there should be.

Reporter: Don't get too excited.

Yue Jun: Yesterday there were only a few, but there should be a lot now. I can't even count them all. Look, beautiful, right?

Reporter: Really beautiful.

Yue Jun: After working hard for half a year, opening this shed and seeing so many things inside gives me a sense of satisfaction.

What Yue Jun calls Snow White is bamboo fungus, a type of fungus. What Yue Jun grows in his greenhouse is also the best variety of bamboo fungus, the fragrant red bamboo fungus, and the place of origin of this bamboo fungus is Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, where Yue Jun is located.

Wu Yong, director of the China Edible Fungi Association and director of the Zhijin Bamboo Fungus Research Institute: Bamboo fungus is the queen of fungi. Among them, only this Zhijin bamboo fungus is the most expensive and the best in quality. Red bamboo fungus is the scientific name, and now the commodity name recognized by overseas markets is Zhijin bamboo fungus, named after our Zhijin County.

Reporter: Which one do you think is beautiful?

Yue Jun: Let me find one for you.

Reporter: Find me the most beautiful Snow White.

Yue Jun: I find this one very beautiful. Look at this bamboo fungus, this is a premium one among bamboo fungi. Look at this skirt, doesn't it look like a little girl's dress, doesn't it?

Reporter: Isn't that one beautiful? I think this one looks good, this one. Can this be pulled off? Look how open this one is.

Yue Jun: Different aesthetic views.

Reporter: You think the one that spreads down is better, right? You know what? Yours is called a pleated skirt, and mine is called a formal dress.

Yue Jun: You could say that too.

Reporter: In terms of quality, which one do you think is better when opened?

Yue Jun: In terms of quality, this one has to go into the drying room. Yours, when dried, will be brittle, and then when you bag it, it will break.

Reporter: Is this mud, the stuff on top?

Yue Jun: Actually, this thing is a good thing. This can be eaten.

Reporter: This mud can still be eaten? Don't joke around.

Yue Jun: It really can be eaten. This is bamboo fungus spore powder, it's just that we haven't developed it yet.

Reporter: Why is it flowing down here at the bottom? What is this?

Yue Jun: This is called bamboo embryo.

Reporter: This sticky stuff can also be eaten?

Yue Jun: The bamboo fungus is a treasure all over. This sticky stuff can be used to make cosmetics.

Reporter: Can it be applied?

Yue Jun: It can be applied. It's just that my face is too ugly. This is for beautiful women, we can't use it.

Reporter: Then after a long time you'll become a handsome guy.

Yue Jun: I'm already an old handsome guy.

Now, when talking about his bamboo fungus, Yue Jun is elated and talks endlessly. Through growing bamboo fungus, Yue Jun has also become a well-known local leader in returning home to start a business and become rich. However, a few years ago, Yue Jun often shed tears while looking at bamboo fungus.

Yue Jun: Sometimes, alas, I don't want to look at it. Looking at it makes me upset. It was also it that wiped out my assets and left me with nothing. My feelings toward this bamboo fungus are very complicated, both love and hate. Because the price I paid was really too great.

So what unusual story is there between Yue Jun and bamboo fungus? And how did he become a local leader in becoming rich through the bamboo fungus industry?

In 1988, because his parents failed in the Chinese medicinal materials business, they owed more than 300,000 yuan in foreign debt. At that time, 16-year-old Yue Jun followed his parents from their hometown of Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, to Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Because he could not find a means of making a living, Yue Jun could only follow his parents through the streets collecting scrap. However, in the process of collecting scrap, Yue Jun earned the first pot of gold in his life.

Yue Jun: What we do is something nobody respects, but the most profitable thing is still this. No industry is noble or lowly. Only then did I understand this truth.

Yue Jun dismantled scrap and set up a large scrap recycling station. In six years, he paid off more than 300,000 yuan of foreign debt owed by his parents, and also married and had children in Yunnan. By 2005, Yue Jun had accumulated nearly 2 million yuan by collecting scrap. At this time, Yue Jun changed careers and, together with several friends, started a lead-zinc mining business in Yunnan, and in less than three years accumulated more than 2 million yuan in wealth.

However, at the end of 2008, the economic crisis broke out, and the price of lead and zinc fell sharply. Unable to do otherwise, Yue Jun and his friends shut down the mine and looked for another way out. Yue Jun, wanting to find something to do, wanted to grow the specialty of his hometown Zhijin County, Guizhou Province--bamboo fungus.

Yue Jun: I had nothing to do, and I also had some money on me. I did whatever came to mind. It was just one idea. Because this bamboo fungus, in our Zhijin, almost everyone, old and young, knows about it. With just one idea, I went up the mountain.

Reporter: That simple?

Yue Jun: That simple.

In Yue Jun's hometown of Zhijin County, not only is bamboo fungus abundant, but local people also habitually eat bamboo fungus in daily life. Yue Jun was very familiar with bamboo fungus, so he did not think much about it. Together with two partners, he pooled more than 300,000 yuan and began contracting 40 mu of land in Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan, to grow bamboo fungus. By July 2009, Yue Jun and his two partners had each earned 30,000 yuan. The other two partners thought making money was too slow and withdrew. But the 30,000 yuan earned made Yue Jun want to keep growing bamboo fungus.

Yue Jun: I told my friends, you can mine for at most three to five years, but if I grow bamboo fungus, I can do this one thing for seventeen or eighteen years. And once you finish digging a big mine, it's gone. I said bamboo fungus is something to eat, something in huge demand. Plant it this year, plant it again next year. So I think I chose right with my bamboo fungus.