Big cities appeal to young graduates, including those coming from the countryside, in search of a well-paid career and an exciting social life.

While the majority struggle to make a home in the nation’s concrete jungles but enjoy the experience nonetheless, some soon discover city life is not for them and return home.

Bao Hongjun, a 23-year-old graduate majoring in landscape architecture from Zhejiang Forestry University, left college last year to seek a new life in Linan city, Zhejiang Province.

But things didn’t pan out as he hoped and he has returned to his roots. Bao describes himself as “a professional farmer.”

He has taken out a contract to manage 500 mu (83 hectares) of unused land on which he has plowed paddy fields to grow rice. He now leases plots of land to local farmers as well as managing his own crop by employing farm hands.

Every morning at 5:30 am, Bao gets up and heads to the paddy fields to check on the leasehold farmers, his employees, crops and on his stores of pesticide. It’s a long day and Bao, despite being a “manager,” undertakes a 12-mile round trip each day to his “office” on foot.

His career is radically different from those of his university peers.

He says most of his classmates from college have secured work in Linan city, with many working at the architecture design institute, and for the urban landscape gardening and environment “greening” departments of the Linan city administration.

But Bao does not regret turning his back on the neon lights and nine to five existence.

“Coming back home to start a career was not that hard a decision for me. I couldn’t find anything good enough in the city, so it was better to return to the village and find work. And being back here also means I can help my parents,” Bao said.

Bao defines himself as a typical member of the post-80s generation. He seeks a busy, successful life and enjoys a challenge, and like many of his age, he rejects the “norms” of society, he said.

“I enjoy online chatting and online games and I want a challenge and I want to be successful,” he said.

He has been back in his village for four months and says he has overcome the challenges he met on his return.

“At first it was really hard to sign the contract for the unused land because I was fresh out of college and the villagers didn’t trust me to plant the rice correctly. I kept persuading them that I could farm the plot, given my qualifications, and I promised I’d have a big harvest in the first year. And I said if I fail to get that much, I’ll make up the margin out of my own pocket,” Bao said.

His hard work and determination appear to have paid off. The first harvest is expected to be a bumper crop.

And Bao said since he introduced mechanization into his farming, product efficiency has been greatly improved and this is beginning to win the skeptical villagers over.
“That is one advantage college gave me – knowledge,” he said. But it hasn’t been all plain sailing. Bao said he made a mistake at the beginning.

Though he was brought up in a rural area, he knew little about planting. So when he started to sow his crop, he grew the rice the way he saw his elders when he was still a boy, with six or seven seedlings in one plot.

But such methods have long changed thanks to scientific advancements.

“When the villagers saw how I was planting, they all laughed at me because nowadays hybrid rice requires just three seedlings per plot, otherwise they don’t grow well. I had to do it all over again and that was really embarrassing,” says Bao.

Humbled and red-faced, the degree holder signed up to some local agricultural teaching classes so as to learn the latest methods.

“I am a quick learner,” he said, though he acknowledged this doesn’t mean he is a “quick earner.” The annual lease fee he collected from the village farmers who farm the paddy fields is the main source of his revenue at present.

The projected annual income from his venture is 50,000 yuan ($7,315) and will be shared among the seven leaseholders.

Bao receives 13 percent, about 6,500 yuan ($951) a year, a wage much less than that of his classmates in the city whose average monthly income is about 1,800 yuan ($263).
But Bao said he enjoys many bonuses. “My classmates may be in the city but they are employees and run the risk of being fired. I work for myself. Even if I fail, I can rise up again with the experience I have gained this. And I can expand my business and carve out my own future.”

Bao’s next business plan is to lease land from villagers and hire people to plant rice, allowing him to profit more from his education, hard work and determination to succeed.

Source: Global Times