Yuan Aiping is the head of Hunan Xinyi Nursery Stock Company and a young entrepreneur from Chunjiang Village, Chonglingjiang Town, Guiyang County. 

 

In 2017, he quit his business and returned to his hometown, hoping to do “much more meaningful” things for his hometown. 

 

In the 1970s, due to the construction of the Ouyanghai Reservoir, all 175 households of villagers were relocated to Chunjiang Village. 

 

The village had much barren mountains and forests, scattered arable land, with low land efficiency, as well as no pillar industries. Thus, young people chose to work outside. 

 

 

 

In 2020, China issued relevant policies to restrict the use of farmland for non-farming purposes. At that time, Yuan Aiping had rich experience in seedling management outside. He had a bold idea of cultivating tree seedlings in the barren mountains and land in his hometown. This could attract more young people to come back and enable the elderly villagers to work nearby. 

 

He soon introduced technology, talents, and funds from the coastal areas of Guangdong province, leased 1,300 mu (about 86.67 hectares) of barren mountains and wasteland in the village and nearby natural villages, established the first large-scale seedling production base in Guiyang County, namely Hunan Xinyi Nursery Stock Company.

 

In the first phase of the nursery stock base, Yuan Aiping reclaimed about 800 mu (about 53.33 hectares) of wasteland, planting such plants as Rhododendron pulchrum Sweet, babysbreath and turf. The annual output value reached 25,000 yuan per mu (0.067 hectares) and the annual village collective income increased by 70,000 yuan. It offered job opportunities for over 60 left-behind women and the elderly, with their annual income up by over 30,000 yuan. 

 

Now, the village cultivates more than 15 million nursery seedlings one year, with  over 13 million nursery seedlings coming out a year. All seedling bases plant nursery seedlings according to orders. 

 

 

 

With a small number of seedlings sold to the local market, other 70% of seedlings are sold to large seedling and flower markets in Changsha, Wuhan, Shanghai and other places, and monthly orders show a significant growth trend. 

 

The originally barren mountains have transformed into a “green treasury”, and villagers can work at their doorsteps. 

 

Yuan Aiping is full of confidence and expectations for future development. He plans to combine the nearby Qingyun Temple (Jianhu Academy) and develop the nursery base into a high-quality tourist destination that integrates tourism, sightseeing, fishing and leisure.