CHONGQING: In the past, residents of underdeveloped villages often made a one-way journey to big cities in the hope of boosting their incomes and supporting their families remotely. These days, however, there is a growing flow of traffic in the opposite direction, as young entrepreneurs, students and researchers descend on villages, drawn by the development potential. The orchid plantation base in Pengxiang village, Sanjiao township in Southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, features 20,000 bowls of orchids of 300 varieties. The barren land has been transformed into a 1 million yuan ($140,000) industry, thanks to the efforts of Ao Qingui, who started the business in 2018 when she was just 23 years old.
While working at a pet clinic in Chengdu, Chongqing’s twin city in Sichuan province, for more than a year, Ao felt a little uneasy about the competitive working environment. “At the time, I hoped to find a job that would give me more passion and freedom, one that not only had material significance but also spiritual significance,” she said.
Driven by her love of orchids, she quit her job and opened an orchid store in Qijiang, her hometown, in 2016. However, she didn’t want to just run a small store, so she devised a business plan for a large-scale orchid plantation and took part in entrepreneurship competitions at the district and municipality levels. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
