One can hardly imagine Chai Huilong, wearing glasses and a T-shirt, as a Chinese chive(韭菜) farmer.
Two years ago, Chai graduated from Tianjin College of University of Science and Technology. He took over his parents' 20,000 square meter plot of land and set up a business: growing Chinese chives.
But instead of growing Chinese chives in the traditional way, Chai plants them in garden pots and sells them directly to customers through an online sore. Now his family makes 10 million yuan a year.
Running a business is a dream for many young graduates. Chai is one of those young graduates who have found great career opportunities in rural areas. They make good use of their agricultural knowledge and new skills, and get support form the government.
When Chai came up with the idea of growing Chinese chives, he was not sure about running his own business. But Youth Business China, a non-profit(非盈利的) program supported by the government which helps encourage youth entrepreneurship (创业精神), gave Chai courage and confidence. The program offers 30,000 to 50,000 yuan in start-up funding to young people who have great ideas. It also assigns(分配) each of them a tutor who provides guidance on spending the money and running the company.
"My relatives and friends regard farming as a bad job. But being a farmer is just my job," said Chai. So far, his products have been shipped to places as far as Dubai on the Arabian Gulf. Chai is confident that he can make a greater success of this job in the future.
