Wu Guozheng, a returnee, went back to his hometown to set up a farm to raise turtles and eventually became rich.

Wu Guozheng is introducing the species and habits of turtles. Photo taken by intern reporter Hu Jianrong

Wu Guozheng lifted more than 20 jin of ferocious crocodile turtles with only one hand.

It was drizzling, and Wu Guozheng was sitting on the other side of the desk making tea, with a picture hanging on the wall behind him, showing two naked children laughing with their mouths open, similar to Wu Guozheng. The photos are also hung with golden signs of "Zhaoqing Farmers' Professional Cooperative Municipal demonstration Unit" and "member Unit of Guangdong Turtle and soft-shelled Turtle farming Industry Association". The young man with short hair smiled heartily. He was the "post-80s"returnee" Wu Guozheng, who raised thousands of turtles and annual sales of tens of millions of yuan.

When he was young, he left home to study in Beijing, and he was ambitious to study in North America all the way. He wanted to show his talents abroad, but he eventually returned to the countryside to live with turtles. Wu Guozheng's turning point in life was unexpected, but there were traces to follow.

It is difficult to give up the feeling of hometown and decide to return home to seek development.

Wu Guozheng is from Dasha Town, Sihui City. His parents are authentic farmers. "there are fish ponds, pig pens and orchards at home. Parents do whatever they make money. They have some money at home, and they live a good life." Wu Guozheng said that since childhood, he has been running around his parents in the fields and farms. He is a rural boy. After graduating from high school, he went to Beijing to study, majoring in accounting in dealing with money. As the only child in the family, Wu Guozheng left home a little, and his parents often worried about him, but they did not stop him from continuing his ambition to pursue education and development. After graduating from university, Wu Guozheng decided to study in Canada. "my family's financial conditions permit, and I also have plans in this regard, and some of my classmates are also studying abroad." The boy who was born in the countryside had the same opportunities as students in the city. he did not give up and studied at Vancouver Island University in Canada with excellent grades, majoring in business administration.

During his study in Canada, his parents, who were at home in Sihui, often called Wu Guozheng overseas, hoping that he would go home as soon as possible after he had finished his studies, so as not to let the two old ladies worry too much. At this time, Wu Guozheng is nearing a master's degree and, like his classmates, is interning in various well-known foreign-funded enterprises. He hopes that he can perform well and finally stay in Canada for development. "when I was an intern at an accounting firm in Canada, I did well and had a good chance to stay and work. I also planned to develop in Canada at that time, but every time my parents called and thought that there was no one to take care of the two old people, I started to hesitate." Wu Guozheng was in a dilemma at that time. The reason why he had the opportunity to study abroad was entirely a gift from his parents, but he felt aggrieved and unwilling to give up everything abroad and go back to his hometown to be a farmer.

After hesitating for a long time, Wu Guozheng finally made the decision to return home. "the first reason is that it is difficult to give up the two elders in the family." Wu Guozheng said that he came out all the way from the countryside and went out of the country, but his root is in the countryside, and his backing is also in the countryside, where there are feelings that cannot be given up. Apart from having a strong sense of homesickness, another reason why Wu Guozheng chose to return home was that he wanted to get rich, but it was hard to get rich by working. "when you work in a foreign-funded enterprise, after all, you still have to make a living. You always earn a salary to support yourself and work for others. If you want to make money and become rich, you can only work for yourself-- do business." Wu Guozheng said that in foreign countries, he has no personal resources, so it is very difficult to make a career, while in his hometown, he has geographical location and harmony of people, and has a lot of room for development.

Young returnees have many ups and downs in raising turtles.

Around 2009, Wu Guozheng, who returned to China, did not think clearly about which industry he wanted to do at first. at first, he wanted to do plastic recycling. "in developed countries, plastic recycling is a very profitable business. I think there may also be good market prospects in China." However, after a series of market research, Wu Guozheng found that there was no room for the development of the plastic recycling market in the fourth meeting. Wu Guozheng's idea was too simple: "the investment is large, and the profit recovery cycle is long." Wu Guozheng then tried to open a hot pot restaurant, but the current situation of homogeneous competition also made him give up the plan. The blind plan at the beginning gave Wu Guozheng, a returnee, a taste of failure for the first time.

However, an accidental meal allowed Wu Guozheng to find his own direction of development. "Dad had dinner with a business friend, who said that raising turtles is a good business now, because the market for high-end turtles is bullish, the profit is very high, and if it is raised on a large scale, the cost of raising a tortoise is only 30 yuan." Wu Guozheng said that he was there at that time, and heard the friend say that there was another great advantage in raising turtles. "unlike other poultry or crops, tortoises have to be fenced or picked at a certain time, otherwise they will miss the season and suffer losses. Turtles can be raised all the year round. The longer they are raised, the higher the value will be. If the market is not good this year, I will not sell it. When the market is good next year, turtles can avoid market risks." As a result, he began to get in touch with the turtle industry.

Wu Guozheng had no savings when he returned home, and the early input costs of raising turtles all came from his family. He did not avoid the fact that he depended entirely on his family at the beginning of his career, but took this and studying abroad as his advantage. In the subsequent breeding process, he also used his father's connections to solve the problem many times. "this is one of the reasons why I chose to return home in the first place." Although Wu Guozheng was born with a "golden spoon", he also knew how to work hard on his own.

In 2011, a batch of pearl soft-shelled turtles he introduced developed swollen neck, did not eat, and began to die every day. In order to treat sick turtles, Wu Guozheng took sick pearl turtles everywhere to seek medical treatment. from Foshan to Zhanjiang and Hainan Island, as soon as he heard that there was a similar condition of turtles elsewhere, he rushed there, hoping to find a cure. During that time, he went out alone, and at the same time worried about the death and loss of too many turtles in his family. He was so anxious and worried all day that he lost weight. Finally, under the efforts of Wu Guozheng, he finally found a good way to cure the turtle.

Today, the farm has succeeded in getting rich in more than 100 mu.

Today, Wu Guozheng breeds all kinds of turtles, including high-end ornamental turtles such as gold turtles and stone turtles, and edible turtles such as crocodile turtles. The farm area is more than 100 mu, the output is about 100,000 jin, and the annual sales have exceeded 10 million yuan.

From returnee students to rural farmers, this change and gap in identity is not as easy as Wu Guozheng imagined. In the process of raising turtles, farmers and farmers around him at first waited to see him laugh, saying that the top returnees were not good, especially when turtle disease caused losses in 2011, when farmers said he could not do anything after reading so many books. Wu Guozheng was also a little skeptical about his ability at that time, but he persevered. "I think I'm at least a returnee. How can this difficulty stop me? I can't let these fellow villagers who meet every day look down on me. I have to work hard." In Wu Guozheng, we can see that he has not only the pride of returnees, but also the simple strength and stubbornness unique to farmers.

After the test in 2011, Wu Guozheng gained a blessing in disguise and transferred his skills among the surrounding farmers in the process of treating turtle disease, and the reputation of "returnee" was also resounding in the turtle industry. Since then, many surrounding farmers began to learn turtle farming techniques from Wu Guozheng, and gradually turned to the turtle farming industry. so far, hundreds of surrounding farmers have embarked on the road of turtle farming to become rich with the drive and help of Wu Guozheng.