Editorial/Financial Storyteller
The epidemic has blocked the way back to their hometowns, and young people in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou have once again been in a foreign country for the New Year. Hundreds of millions of young people in the county town do not need to go through such entanglements and separations.
Over the past decade, the tide of young people has been split in two, some to the big cities and some to the smaller counties. Zhang Bing, deputy director of the Land and Spatial Planning Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources, observed this trend, "especially in China's western provinces, the trend of population return is actually much back to the county unit." Statistics show that 56% of the new urban population is concentrated in counties, and the membership of "GDP hundreds of billions of counties" has also expanded to 38.
At the same time, the uphill and rural migration of Internet services and the sinking and shifting of manufacturing assembly lines have also assisted the upward movement of employment and consumption in the county. The county living convenience index is also aligned with the first-tier cities. Meituan data shows that in 2020, the catering takeaway service has covered 1727 counties across the country, and the total population of these counties accounts for more than 99.0% of the country, even during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, the county takeaway is still not closed.
We interviewed a group of young people who returned to small counties and discovered their employment concepts and survival status that are very different from those of front-line young people.
On the employment side, it is very different from large cities, academic qualifications are no longer a stepping stone, nor are the key variables that determine the level of salary, the value of hard-working is more prominent, the actual income of many young people can even look at blue-collar and white-collar workers in big cities; and on the consumption side, most of the young people in the county town buy houses in full, without the pressure of car loans and mortgages, but they usually marry early and have children early, and raise wives and children with their own strength, and the economic burden is not very easy.
Overall, they are more balanced in income and expenditure, have a strong sense of happiness in life, are in a society of acquaintances, and have a higher degree of integration with the local environment.
The five-star hotel in Guangzhou earns three thousand a month, and now it earns more than 10,000 yuan a month back in Tibet, and one person can easily raise the whole family
Ngawang graduated from secondary school in Aligar County, Tibet after 95 married and childbearing
Ngawang could not forget the soldier.
Probably just returned from visiting relatives in the mainland, he reacted badly from lack of oxygen, shook and could hardly stand, waved his hand to signal Awang to stop, "Where are the oxygen bottles for sale?" ”
Awang rushed all the way to the pharmacy, and the soldiers asked to pay, but Awang declined.
Ngawang, who works as a rider in Aligaar County, receives about a third of the orders from soldiers — without looking at uniforms, Ngawang can also distinguish soldiers, who are usually young, around twenty years old, with different accents, faces as black and red as local herders, and sunburn and molting are common. In winter, the hands that take takeout are usually dry and rough, full of cracks and frostbite.
Most of the soldiers were stationed on the Sino-Indian border, the wind and sun were blowing all year round, the days were very bitter, and when they came to the county town when they changed their defenses, they had the opportunity to order some barbecues, dry pots, fried chickens, and comforted the stomach and intestines that had been making up for a long time.
The pick-up point was usually outside the camp, and occasionally in the convoy, the young soldiers who had not yet had time to change their clothes, covered in wind and frost and dust.
Their order amount is generally higher, Awang received the highest order of about 1200 yuan, "may be a dinner", there are many things, Awang will first suspend the order, priority for the soldiers to deliver.
Sometimes, soldiers would also ask the riders to bring some daily necessities, cigarettes, military boots, clothes, face polish, etc., and Awang would deliberately take a detour to the local quartermaster labor shop, "I admire the soldiers, they are too bitter", Ngawang said, giving them services, Ngawang has a sense of accomplishment.
During the spring, there are many soldiers in foreign countries for the New Year, and Ngawang will not close.
Before becoming a rider, there were not many options in front of the Tibetan boy Ngawang, working in a big city or a herdsman in Tibetan areas, both of which he tried.
Born in the hinterland of the northern Tibetan plateau, Ngawang's family lived by raising yaks, studied all the way, and did not experience the hardships of herding as a child.
In 2014, Ngawang went to Guangzhou to study secondary school. The bustling and lively Guangzhou makes Awang novel and makes Awang uncomfortable.
Later, under the arrangement of the school, he went to a five-star hotel to help the back kitchen. The climate is uncomfortable, the salary is not enough to spend, and the monthly salary is about three thousand yuan. It was too far from home, and it took nearly a week to take the train from Ali to Guangzhou.
In 2017, under the persuasion of his mother, Ngawang returned to his hometown.
The financial pressure began to stand out after Ngawang got married. In 2017, at the age of 21, Ngawang got married, and in August of the following year, he had twins.
Awang is not alone. Unlike first- and second-line young people who generally marry late and have children later, it is the norm for young people in counties to marry early and have children early. Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that the average marriage age of the population in small and medium-sized cities and counties and townships is about three years lower than that in first-tier cities.
Although Ngawang's family also has seventy or eighty yaks, the valuation is not cheap. But Tibetans oppose killing, so yaks are more like "fixed assets" and the money they can realize is quite limited. Moreover, raising yaks also has to migrate non-stop, several times a year, and Ngawang does not want his children to work so hard.
Staying in the pastoral area also means that after the children go to school, they have to be separated from their parents for many years - when Ngawang was a child, he studied at the county primary school hundreds of kilometers away from home, when the road was not good, and it often took many months to return to the pastoral area to reunite with his parents.
Under the balance of left and right, working in the district and county is the best option.
On the one hand, the average altitude of Gar County is about 4350 meters, and the labor remuneration includes a "high altitude premium" and the income level is higher. For example, the monthly income of local Meituan riders is one or two thousand yuan higher than that of Lhasa, which is lower than the altitude.
On the other hand, most of the ali area relies on external input for eating and wearing daily necessities, inconvenient transportation, and high cost - a bowl of 7 yuan rice noodles in Sichuan, which sells for 20 yuan here, a high consumption level, and also pulls high income in reverse.
At the beginning of 2020, Ngawang joined the US group and became a rider. Today, there are more than 90 riders at the Meituan distribution station in Gar County alone, and one-third of them are local Tibetans.
Of course, there are also many riders from other places, such as the station manager Yao Yong is a Sichuanese. He came here from Lhasa to take charge of the station, and after surviving the painful high reaction, he has now adapted to the high altitude. Riding on the sparsely populated streets, he began to enjoy ali's quiet and cold silence.
Out-of-town riders come from afar, usually with a fancy to the high salaries here. Ngawang's colleague Yu Hongwei left his hometown of Mianyang because the average monthly income of locals was only three or four thousand yuan, and after Ali became a rider, his income doubled or tripled, "no need to worry about mortgages."
Ngawang, who earns more than 10,000 yuan a month, can now easily support his family and save two or three thousand or three or four thousand yuan per month.
Ngawang is most satisfied that he can also spend years with his wife and children, except for a few hours of peak food delivery, he can go home every day to tease his children, drink butter tea together, eat rice dumplings, and have fun.
In the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Awang still intends to take orders on the post - the company's New Year red envelopes, coupled with various order doubling rewards, "there may be nearly 2,000 yuan of additional income", and, during the New Year, the amount of orders is not much, the workload is also much easier, "less work, more money", Awang is very happy. Two
Ten years ago, the monthly income of part-time workers was just over 1,000, and now I have returned to my hometown to open a fried chicken shop, with an average daily income of more than 1,000
Yang Zhi after 90 Years, Hainan Lingshui County Graduated from middle school Married and childbearing
Yang Zhi, a young man in the "slash" town who has two jobs, spends a day like this: as the station manager of the Meituan delivery station, he has to manage more than 100 riders online, and as a small boss, he also has to take care of handling takeaway orders from fried chicken shops, busy but also full.
Yang Zhi has had a dream of "being a small boss" since he was a child - after he traveled for many years and returned to his hometown, it was realized.
His parents were farmers, he lived in a thatched hut when he was a child, "snacks can never be eaten", and in 2008, 15-year-old Yang Zhi graduated from junior high school and dropped out of school early.
At that time, lingshui, which was still hanging in the "poor county", had limited opportunities, so he had to go to Haikou to work - cleaning, front desk, moving bricks at the construction site, and so on.
The easiest job is a golf course caddy, with a monthly salary of about 1200 yuan, occasionally a little tip, and it is better than nothing.
Yang Zhi cherishes this job, although Haikou is only 200 kilometers away from Lingshui, but in the four years of his caddy career, he only returned home for one year during the Spring Festival, "afraid of losing his job, he did not dare to ask for leave." ”
It wasn't until 2012 that he completely ended his wandering career.
This year, the Lingshui Tourism Development Master Plan was officially announced, and the local tourism industry began to start, which also revitalized the catering, accommodation, real estate and other industries.
Yang Zhi, who saw the opportunity, returned to Lingshui with 10,000 yuan of savings.
But limited by no diploma and no skills, opportunities did not fall from the sky. In the next five or six years, Yang Zhi still stumbled, worked as a security guard, ran through freight, and his average monthly income was only two or three thousand yuan. During this period, Yang Zhi got married and had children, and the economic pressure became increasing.
With the concept of Sanya's back garden, Lingshui house prices have also risen all the way, reaching an average of about 30,000 yuan. Yang Zhi is still lucky, the family has a self-built house, no need to buy a high price, but he does not know where to raise the decoration money.
The turnaround came in 2018.
At that time, a new profession appeared in Lingshui - Meituan takeaway rider. At first, Yang Zhi was once half-convinced, thinking that the propaganda of "10,000 monthly income" might be a "gimmick", but he decided to "gamble".
He obviously "gambled" to win, after becoming a rider, his average monthly income was stable at eight or nine thousand yuan, and when he stayed in the tourist season, his monthly income easily exceeded 10,000 yuan, "In the first year of running a single, I earned enough money for the decoration of the house." ”
After working outside for many years, Yang Zhi was once alienated from his hometown, and after becoming a rider, he went out every day and became a "social person", and his relationship with his hometown became closer and closer.
Riders like him are no longer in the minority. Last summer, a rider at the station was driving a motorcycle to deliver orders when a boy was seen scurrying down the sidewalk into the driveway. Just at this moment, a large car sped by, and the boy was in the blind spot of the car's line of sight. The rider, who was also a father, jumped off the motorcycle and rolled out of the lane with the child in his arms.
"Later, we made up for all the working hours he had delayed in saving people," Yang Zhi said, "although we have to train riders every week to stay away from danger, but saving people and saving people, we have always advocated." ”
Today's Yang Zhi, as a station manager, in charge of assigning work to the riders, but also to deal with opinions and complaints, less labor, more worry, "most riders are not willing to be station managers, feel too trivial and too troublesome, but I think to do management, and more communication with people, their ability can also be higher." ”
Being a rider also gave Yang Zhi an "extra bonus" - often communicating with merchants, he gradually gained insight into the doorway of the catering industry, and also captured a "business opportunity".
Yang Zhi found that both local residents and tourists love to eat fried chicken. However, within the scope covered by the Meituan Bay West distribution station, there is no special fried chicken shop on the line, "there is no demand, there is no supply, and opening a fried chicken shop is definitely booming."
Under the epidemic situation in 2020, taking advantage of the sluggish offline catering and low rent, he ordered a façade in Clearwater Bay and launched the Meituan takeaway as soon as it opened.
The "management knowledge" learned when I was the captain and the station manager was also applied to the management shop, "In the past, the riders and guests had disputes, most of them were because of the bad attitude, so I asked the staff to have a good attitude, praise, and takeaway orders to go up."
Nowadays, the average daily turnover of Yangzhi Fried Chicken Shop is easily more than 1,000 yuan, and the proportion of takeaway is as high as about 60%. He also no longer runs orders outside, works full-time as a delivery station manager, and also has spare time to help his wife manage the fried chicken shop.
The Spring Festival is approaching, Lingshui's annual tourism peak will also coincide, catering takeaway will enter the peak season, Yang Zhi and his wife only plan to rest for two days, and then they will double busy, "Ten years ago, I worked outside, busy and tired and couldn't make money." Now I am also very busy, but I can get money, I can still have a family reunion, and what is not satisfied?! ”
He once earned 200,000 yuan a year in a big city, and the opportunity was no longer there, and he returned to his hometown
Yu Qi after 90 Heilongjiang Fuyuan graduated from high school married and childbearing
Unlike many young people in the county who have been in big cities and have not been able to save money, Yu Qi once had a highlight moment.
When he was about 20 years old, he and four partners worked as a small contract foreman in Harbin, with a net profit of 1 million yuan a year.
Just when he was satisfied, the real estate industry gradually stopped limelight, opportunities were greatly reduced, and good times for making money flashed by.
Yu Qi is not alone – the size of the entire construction industry has begun to turn downward since 2017, and in 2020 alone, it has reduced by 2 million people year-on-year.
After the contractor's business was difficult to continue, Yu Qi and his wife, who was an only child, returned to the latter's hometown of Fuyuan, a five-line town that "can see the west from the east and the north from the south".
After returning to Fuyuan, the full purchase of the house and decoration cost 400,000 yuan, coupled with the fact that there was no income for most of the wedding, Yu Qi experienced for the first time what is "tight on hand".
But in Fuyuan this place, although there seem to be many jobs, counterpart opportunities are rare.
Even college graduates are not employed – the wife went to university and chose a Russian major, initially with good employment in mind. Fuyuan and Russia are separated by a port, before 2014, every year, there are many Russians, endlessly come to Fuyuan tourism, there are even many local shops, only open to Russians.
At the end of 2014, after the depreciation of the ruble, the number of Russians traveling through customs was significantly reduced, and the wife's university degree was not "useful" for a while. The two once went to a relative's hotel to help workers, but after packing food and housing, they could only leave a net income of 20,000 or 30,000 yuan a year.
Soon after marriage, his wife soon became pregnant, began to stay at home full-time, a person to support the family, Yu Qi, more and more worried about livelihood, "Fuyuan people are mainly tourism, fishing, farming, we do not have any special skills." ”
When he was bored, Yu Qi heard that the local Meituan delivery station was recruiting riders, and he decided to give it a try. At first, he was worried about whether he could do a good job, "Although fuyuan is not a big place, every neighborhood, street, including the unit door must remember, I am not local, quite ignorant." ”
After only a month, Yu Qi gradually adapted, taking 2 days off a month, and her income hovered between 7,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan, which was much higher than the average local average monthly salary of 3,000 or 4,000 yuan.
Today, Yu Qi's wife is now preparing for the civil service, "may also earn three or four thousand yuan a month, not to seek a high salary, but to seek ease", Yu Qi said, because the rider's income is relatively high, he can take on the main responsibility of supporting the family.
During the epidemic period, Yu Qi also unexpectedly found that the job of a rider was relatively stable. Many industries are not easy to do, Yu Qi's new colleagues, many also from the chef and other industries to change the road, "before the chef monthly income of five or six thousand, but on time to commute is very constrained, after turning to a rider monthly income can reach seven or eight thousand." ”
Being a rider also allows Yu Qi, the original "foreigner", to become a "social master" in the county, truly integrating into the local area, "everywhere is acquaintances." ”
He also does not need to be like a first- and second-line young man squeezing the subway to squeeze the bus to endure congestion, Yu Qi's home is only a few hundred meters away from the station, "walking around in a few minutes to arrive."
When he is not running a single, he will often come to the site to sit down, "Our team is like a big family, often ordering us cakes, fruits, and treating us very well, I am used to it, every day is like going home to report." 」 ”
Near the Spring Festival, the station is also much more lively than usual, as in previous years, and the riders were given rice, flour, oil, canned fruits and other New Year goods.
Today's Yu Qi, although not back to the "earn 200,000 a year" scenery moment, but very satisfied with the current life, "I also have friends working in big cities, may earn more, but the consumption is also high, a year down, can not save a few money, and the wife and children to suffer with the suffering, it is not easy." ”
In Shanghai, the monthly income of 4,000 yuan is not enough to rent a house, and the dream of the big city is shattered back to Mohe
Fang Ping after 95 Heilongjiang Mohe graduated from middle school unmarried
Like many young people, when he was a teenager, Fang Ping's dream was to go to the big city. He has successively traveled to Qingdao, Shanghai, etc., worked as a catering supervisor, did car beauty, and drifted for many years, but found that the money in big cities was difficult to earn and could not be retained.
In 2018, it coincided with the ex-girlfriend's internship in Shanghai. Fang Ping pushed the boat along the water and accompanied his girlfriend to Shanghai, "thinking about seeing if he could stay in Shanghai."
But reality soon gave Fang Ping a hard blow.
With a low degree from junior high school, it is difficult to find a good job with a high salary in Shanghai. Work as a foreman in a restaurant, but the monthly salary is about 4,000 yuan.
Fang Ping once planned to rent a house with his girlfriend, but found an agent to ask, and found that he could rent a single room with all his monthly salary, and he could not afford to rent a house, of course, he could not afford to buy it.
Occasionally with his girlfriend to fight a tooth sacrifice, a meal will cost at least two or three hundred yuan, "the money is not enough to spend."
Under the strain, the two continued to rub around, and finally broke up, "economic reasons accounted for a large part, that was the first time I realized that making money is too important."
After staying in Shanghai for more than a year, Fang Ping was discouraged and planned to leave.
In 2019, during a small talk with friends, he happened to hear that the income on the Mohe River was relatively high, and he was moved.
The upward trend of Mohe's income is largely driven by tourism. As the northernmost county-level city in China, Mohe has monopolistic tourism resources and is the only place in China where the Northern Lights can be seen.
In addition to tourism, some new employment opportunities are also emerging – in October 2017, Meituan's takeaway service settled in Mohe. The first job Fang Ping found was a Meituan rider.
When he first became a rider, Fang Ping was a little worried in his heart, "Although he is from the northeast, the low temperature of minus forty or fifty degrees, I really haven't experienced it, I'm afraid I can't stand it."
At the end of 2019, when he joined the Meituan, it coincided with the extreme "cold winter" of Mohe, and Fang Ping unexpectedly found that "he could still stand it" - the Meituan takeaway vehicle was a closed tricycle with a glass shell, "the company is very intimate, this car can block the wind and keep warm, it will not feel very cold", and now, when the rider reaches the third year, he is also ready to work for a long time.
Monthly income of more than 8,000 yuan, "is my part-time work for so many years, the highest income and the most stable job, but also the longest I have done a job" - in Mohe local, dry catering and waiters, the salary is about 2500 yuan - 3000 yuan.
Still, as a stationmaster, it's not easy for him to recruit riders locally, "most people hate being tired and cold as a rider." Moreover, most of the locals have iron rice bowls, and the house prices in Mohe are low, which is only two or three thousand yuan, and the economic pressure is very small."
But Fang Ping is different, he cherishes this job opportunity - under the shock wave of the epidemic, Mohe's tourism economy in the past two years has been hit hard, and the income of many industries has dropped by more than half, but as a takeaway just needed, it has not been affected.
This Spring Festival, most of Fang Ping's colleagues still will not close - during the Spring Festival, there will be additional rewards for receiving orders, and the average income of singles will double.
Conclusion
When the first rays of sunlight broke out of the east pole, the Ali region in the west was still asleep in the dark; when Yang Zhi of Lingshui sweated like rain in the heat, Jiang Ping of the Mohe River may be trekking in the cold storm and snow, and they all found their own "stability and happiness" and "poetry and far away" in the county town.
Regardless of the southeast, southwest, and northwest, the county economy is moving in the same direction, accelerating the tide - the promotion of China's urbanization tide, and the spontaneous sinking of Chinese enterprises, intersecting here, driving the upward trend of the county economy in both directions, and also creating new job opportunities.
The level of takeaway also shows a positive resonance relationship with the county economy, and Meituan data shows that from 2019 to 2020, the growth rate of county catering takeaway consumption is 8% higher than that of the whole country and 17% higher than the average of municipal districts in the same province.
During this year's Spring Festival, 60% of riders do not close, while taking orders on the spot, while rest assured that the New Year, they will get 550 million yuan of subsidies issued by Meituan takeaway, eat free Chinese New Year's Eve meals, receive New Year gift boxes, etc.
This Spring Festival, Yang Zhi, Awang, Jiang Ping, and Yu Qi, who do not close, will still send food and comfort to the tourists in Lingshui, Ali's soldiers, and the old iron that mohe is far away. (Fang Ping is a pseudonym)