"Overseas returnees can be seen in thousands of lines and industries"

Original title: "We have an agreement with Shanhai"

Sun Yahui, reporter of People's Daily Overseas Edition

In Xiangshan County, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, there are two overseas returnees who have studied in Japan and returned home to start their own businesses. One is Zhu Wenrong, who graduated from Kochi University. He loves the sea and solved the technical problem of Enteromorpha prolifera breeding; One is Han Zhengshu, who graduated from the Tama University of Fine Arts. He works with the mountains and forests and integrates his design ideas into the green mountains and green waters. Between mountains and seas, they record their dreams of youth.

Make Little Enteromorpha Enteromorpha into a Big Industry

March and April of each year is the peak season for collecting Enteromorpha prolifera. Zhu Wenrong is carefully checking the growth of Enteromorpha prolifera along the beach in Huangbiao Township, Xiangshan County. By the bank, villagers are looking at the rows of Enteromorpha prolifera that are neatly dried in the air. Seeing Zhu Wenrong coming, the two talked enthusiastically.

"Aunt Xu has fished marsh moss for some years, and this alone can increase the income of 60000 to 70000 yuan every year." Zhu Wenrong told reporters that there are many cases like Aunt Xu among nearby villagers. Everyone can increase their income and become rich at home.

For more than ten years, Zhu Wenrong "plunged" into the fishing villages around Xiangshan Port. His figure is running between the mudflat and the factory laboratory. With a tenacity of never giving up, Zhu Wenrong has turned the small marsh into a big industry.

A corner of Han Zhengshu's studio.

The reason why I became attached to Enteromorpha prolifera is because of my experience of studying abroad. Zhu Wenrong majored in Enteromorpha research when he studied in Kochi University. In Japan at that time, each kilogram of Enteromorpha prolifera powder was expensive. When Zhu Wenrong returned to China to investigate the growth of Enteromorpha prolifera, he found that in Xiangshan, these Enteromorpha prolifera growing on the beach were not precious and were often abandoned by crab and shellfish farmers. The young man found a business opportunity.

In 2006, with more than 100000 yuan saved from working in Japan, Zhu Wenrong decided to return to China to start his own business, engaging in seaweed breeding, processing, export and product development. Zhu Wenrong opened the market for drying Enteromorpha prolifera in the first year after he came back to China and started his business because he knew many Japanese distributors of Enteromorpha prolifera.

However, the problem follows: the growth period of wild Enteromorpha prolifera is only from January to May every year. What if the yield is not enough? The idea of "Enteromorpha prolifera culture" gradually emerged.

After repeated experiments, Zhu Wenrong led the team to gradually master the way to use marine deep water for algae cultivation, so that algae cultivation that could only be carried out on the plane could be carried out in three-dimensional space.

In the ground-based breeding base of Zhu Wenrong's team, you can see that Enteromorpha prolifera is suspended in the water, not attached to the beach or reef like in the sea. "The spore agglomeration technology can be used to treat Enteromorpha prolifera during the breeding period, so that the root and root attach to each other, so as to achieve suspended growth," Zhu Wenrong said.

Young designers build their dreams in rural areas

Ten years ago, Han Zhengshu, a junior in college, renovated the idle houses in his hometown in Miaoqianyang Village, Xinqiao Town, Xiangshan County. Now, the old village house hidden in his memory since childhood has taken on a new look: a white two-story building, a bright glass patio, and a wooden handcrafted cabinet... Han Zhengshu has turned this place into a studio for the design team. Fresh and elegant, is the first impression when entering this house.

Case model of team design works displayed in Han Zhengshu Studio.

Han Zhengshu, born in Xiangshan in 1992, has always loved art and design since he was young. During his college years, he took the spare rooms in his hometown as the reconstruction objects and carried out experimental residential reconstruction design. After graduation, Han Zhengshu went to Japan for further study. During his postgraduate period, he studied his hometown Xiangshan with the topic of "space activation and regional regeneration design", deeply investigated the regional environment and cultural characteristics of Xiangshan, and made a design proposal with the topic of the regeneration plan of his hometown fishing village in his graduate creation.

After graduating from the graduate school in 2019, Han Zhengshu returned to his hometown and, together with a group of like-minded young designers, established two (Ningbo) Culture Co., Ltd. and unnamed architectural design firms, committed to combining design concepts with local culture to create unique works. "Four of our team members have returned from abroad. We all think that the core of architecture is people, and the core of the team is also people. When it comes to entrepreneurship, we can say that it is a hit and go." Han Zhengshu said.

In recent years, the design project of Han Zhengshu's studio has been reflected in communities, factories and rural homestays. One case that impressed him most was the transformation of a rural homestay in Taizhou, Zhejiang. "After receiving the project invitation from the owner, we frequently traveled to the studio and project site." Han Zhengshu said that in order to better present the implementation effect of the project, after the project was launched, he and two entrepreneurial partners entered the village with sleeping bags on their backs.

"The whole site was originally a part of the village, and the natural landscape was beautiful. We thought at that time that we could create an inward space. The external style of the homestay was harmonious with the surrounding natural environment, and the inward space was a different level." The design scheme was easy to draft, and several young people finally impressed the owner with their sincere works, and successfully won the project.

Speaking of the homestay in his hometown, Han Zhengshu couldn't hide his excitement. With a simple style and pure brushwork, every tree and grass between the valley and the village becomes a natural ornament. The members of the studio also collected tiles, wood, pottery pots and other items in the village, so that they can be scattered everywhere in a new form, adding more local flavor to the overall environment. Han Zhengshu said that after the completion of the project, the whole team had a new understanding of the design. "A successful rural project needs to consider people's actual needs and experience, rather than rely on the design of physical space," he said.

Growing on the way of entrepreneurship

Now, Zhu Wenrong has set his sights on wider fields. If we can say that what attracted Zhu Wenrong to Xiangshan Village at first was Enteromorpha prolifera, and what finally made him take root here was the vitality of rural villages.

Zhu Wenrong is checking the drying quality of Enteromorpha prolifera.

Relying on land transfer, Zhu Wenrong has created a rural pastoral complex "Caspian Lotus Pond" and a home stay "Anlan Bieyuan", which are very popular with tourists. "I want visitors to feel at home here," said Zhu Wenrong.

In recent years, Zhu Wenrong has paid more attention to the effective connection with the local agricultural industry through the project, and organically combined the viewing experience with economic income increase. Fish, shrimp, green crabs and white geese have been raised in the rice field, which not only promotes high-quality agricultural and sideline products, but also improves the comprehensive benefits of the rice field.

On February 28, 2023, at the colorful coastline square of Huangbiao, about 2340.1 tons of carbon sequestration in a year in the local Xihu Port was traded at the price of 106 yuan per ton. This is the first blue carbon transaction in China in the form of auction. The blue carbon auctioned on the spot comes from the "Three Treasures of West Shanghai", including kelp, laver and Enteromorpha prolifera.

As one of the transaction sellers, the company founded by Zhu Wenrong sold 246.1 tons of carbon sinks of Enteromorpha prolifera in 2022.

"Through blue carbon trading, the value of ecological products can be better improved." Zhu Wenrong said that the transaction costs will continue to be used for follow-up research on Enteromorpha prolifera breeding and carbon fixation mechanism, and he also hoped that more people would pay attention to the local blue carbon economy and marine economy in the future.

At the end of April this year, the list of entrepreneurship and innovation in Ningbo was released, and Han Zhengshu was on the list. Since 2008, the local selection of this new college student entrepreneur has been held for 16 consecutive years, and a total of 159 new college students have been selected. Han Zhengshu said that being included in this list is an encouragement for him and the whole team.

At the beginning of the year, Han Zhengshu rented three more vacant houses near the original studio, and planned to carry out centralized renovation in June. He said that he hopes his experience can inspire more designers who want to return to their hometown and start their own businesses, so that everyone can help their hometown develop together. "In the past few years since the studio was founded, some of our design concepts have also been updated and adjusted. In fact, designers and projects are 'learning from teaching', which records the growth footprints of entrepreneurs."