Xia Yu's passionate devotion to flowers, spending a huge sum to build Chongqing's first high-mountain flower village
Walking into Damu Township in Fuling District, the most remote area at an altitude of over 1000 m, you will be astonished to find a fairy-tale-like place deep in the mountains: surrounded by 100,000 mu of forest, rows of rural villas and over a thousand mu of colorful gardens make people feel as if they have arrived in a paradise.
Xia Yu (center) explaining flower-growing techniques to employees in the garden. Photo by Wu Guofu
Zhong Tao, Party secretary of Damu Township, who received the reporter, said that 4 years ago this place was completely different. At that time, farmers throughout the township lived on a per capita annual income of less than 1000 yuan, and it was the poorest village in Chongqing. Last year, however, the per capita annual income of farmers here reached as high as 8000 yuan, and they began to embark on the road to prosperity. These tremendous changes are inseparable from the "flower fanatic" female boss Xia Yu and her Chongqing Tianmu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. Over 4 years she invested 20 million yuan to build Chongqing's first high-mountain flower village.
The first flower sale brought in 17.5 yuan
Standing amid over a thousand mu of blooming sunflowers, lupines and lavender, 44-year-old Xia Yu has shed the air of an intellectual and looks somewhat like a township official.
Xia Yu, who is not good at talking, said that in 1983 she was admitted from Fuling to Nanjing University of Chemical Technology to study chemical machinery, a major she did not like at all, and 4 years later she was assigned to work at Nanjing Chemical Industry Company. Because the environment where the company was located was rather poor, she began to grow flowers and plants. After working for 9 years, she and her husband were transferred back from Nanjing to work in Fuling, but because the work at her unit was very idle, and especially influenced by her retired father's flower growing, she became obsessed with growing flowers. Afterward, Xia Yu resolutely left her job and went into business, starting a career of growing and selling flowers.
At that time, her father spent 400 yuan to buy a small nursery from someone else, and Xia Yu introduced roses and other flowers from Singapore and other places, then carried them in a basket on her back to the Fuling vegetable market to sell. The first sale brought in 17.5 yuan, an income she would never forget for the rest of her life.
Seizing the opportunity of direct administration to earn the first pot of gold
After the success of selling flowers, Xia Yu devoted all her efforts to the cultivation and growing of various flowers. She said that at the time Fuling had no flower-growing farms, and around the time Chongqing became a directly administered municipality, Fuling introduced large enterprises such as Wahaha, and especially when municipal greening construction accelerated greatly, she seized the opportunity.
In 1997, she not only opened a flower shop of a few sq m in Fuling, but also received her first big order, a relatively large greening project in Fuling. That year she earned more than 30,000 yuan through selling flowers and greening projects. In order to expand the space for her career, starting 10 years ago, Xia Yu, whose business was thriving, began to enter the main urban area of Chongqing to carry out greening projects. Before the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, her tens of thousands of pots of fresh flowers were moved to Jiefangbei Square, and she established Chongqing Tianzi Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., becoming a leading enterprise in the city's flower industry. At the same time, she also seized market opportunities and bought out the seed sales agency rights in China for primroses from the German company Weisen, and every October after the seedlings came out, she chartered planes to transport them to East China for sale.
Renting over a thousand mu of land to develop sightseeing agriculture
4 years ago, at the invitation of the Damu Township government in Fuling, Xia Yu came to a high mountain at an altitude of over 1500 m with abundant sunshine and built a high-mountain flower base of more than 500 mu. After achieving success, she consulted with the local government and farmers, then rented more than 1700 mu of land, established Chongqing Tianmu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., and began building a sightseeing agriculture theme park as Chongqing's first high-mountain flower village.
How can farmers in a poor township escape poverty and become rich? Zhong Tao, Party secretary of Damu Township, calculated an account for the reporter: after farmers provide land circulation, they can earn 200 yuan per mu of land each year, farmers can also share in the scenic area ticket revenue, and at the same time they can work for the enterprise, such as growing flowers and weeding. Zhong Tao said that as tourism developed, the selling prices of large amounts of agricultural and sideline products such as cured meat and free-range chickens also rose substantially, more than 50 farmhouse resorts were opened locally, and last year alone the per capita annual income of local farmers reached 8000 yuan.
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Leading farmers to prosperity "Flower fanatic" has not returned home for two years
During the 4 years of building the Damu Township flower theme park, Xia Yu changed from an intellectual into what the locals call a "flower fanatic." Over more than 1400 days and nights in 4 years, she was completely immersed in flower planting, cultivation and talent training. Although it is less than 60 km from Fuling, Xia Yu did not return home even once during two of those years. She said that seeing her park become more and more flourishing day by day, and the farmers also become richer day by day, she gradually neglected her own family, and her husband also broke up with her.