This is the 265th true story of "Selfie"
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Zhu Peikang/Dictation
Wang Mandi/Written
Croak/Edit
My name is Zhu Peikang, I often tell everyone that I am "rice bran for pigs", and later my friends called me "rice bran", and my screen name came from this. My hometown is in Gaoshi Township, Qingtian, Zhejiang, where the legendary Ming Dynasty master Liu Bowen practiced. Qingtian is also a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, with 70% of the county's population abroad.
When I was 18 years old, I went abroad to do business with my two sisters and spent more than twenty years in the Balkans.
A photo of me as a teenager.
I was born in 1982, I have four children, and I am the only male. In the 1980s, just after the reform and opening up began, my parents began to do business. Every morning at four or five o'clock in the morning, my parents would take a tractor to catch a market, or drive a boat to Wenzhou to buy goods.
When I was a child, my parents were basically not around, and I grew up with my sister, one two years older than me, one four years older than me. When I was five or six years old, there was a shop in my family, and my sisters cooked and watched the shop.
From left to right, my sister, mom and eldest sister were in the shop we opened that year.
When I was a child, I was naughty, and I belonged to the kind of people who were out and beaten every day. I like the Three Kingdoms and The Ancient Puzzle Boy, which are very jianghu things, and often go around the village with my friends. If there are any oranges in the village that have been stolen and chestnuts have been stolen, they basically find my house first.
At that time, if a child in the village made a mistake, his family would be punished to the whole village to play movies and firecrackers, and our family put them many times.
Once, the chestnuts of the villagers were stolen, and the master's family came to complain, and it happened that I did not do it, but the adults did not believe it, and my father hung me up and beat me, and then put on a movie for the villagers to see. I was angry, and in the middle of the night, I took a knife and asked a dozen friends to cut down the chestnut tree.
I (second from left) took a picture with my friends when I was a child.
I was skinny until I was twelve or thirteen. That year, I broke my femur on someone's motorcycle, and I lay at home for a whole year, reading villain books every day. Slowly, I became particularly fascinated by painting. My academic performance was not good, and I drew all the weapons in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms on the junior high school English test paper.
My English teacher took a look at it and suggested to my parents that your son really can't read, and he doesn't love to read, or do you send him to learn to draw? Later, I was admitted to a secondary school in my hometown to study painting for four years.
I (second from right) was with my junior high school English teacher (second from left).
In 1999, NATO bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and our school organized a parade, when our art class was responsible for writing posters, and I participated. Unexpectedly, my fate was soon linked to Yugoslavia.
In 2000, I graduated from secondary school and originally planned to go to the Academy of Fine Arts to continue my studies, but my two sisters went to post-war Kosovo to do business earlier, when the war in Kosovo had just subsided, the whole country was in ruins, everything was lacking, and the business was very good. But the situation was more chaotic, my parents were not at ease, as the only man in the family, I had to take on the responsibility of protecting my family, and then I also went to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo Pu.
I didn't learn to paint, and I still regret it in my bones. But fate is like this, there is no way.
A painting I drew when I was a kid.
On my 18th birthday I flew on a plane to Kosovo.
When I got off the plane, I saw that the airport was very small, just a runway, and the buildings were all temporary iron rooms, just like our factory buildings, full of Un soldiers, carrying submachine guns, all kinds of armored vehicles, and I was completely ignorant.
When I took the bus to where my sisters lived, I could see burned houses and bullet-holed walls everywhere, and I was actually quite panicked.
Later, after getting familiar with it, I found that it was actually fine, and it was still relatively safe to live in the city center.
Our shop is located opposite the United Nations Police Headquarters and sells clothes bags and a variety of daily necessities, including a generator. There were employees watching from the store, and I spent every day in the cafe next to me, chatting with police officers from all over the world.
My second sister (middle) chatted with customers in the shop.
In the first year, I learned three languages, English, Albanian, serbian, and I could only say that I couldn't read that foreign language on the road.
At that time, the girl in the shop next to me was still chasing me, foreigners, more direct, came up and said I like you, but I was young at the time, only 18 years old, the family did not agree, my sister was strict, there was no follow-up.
I made a lot of police friends in Kosovo, South Korea, Japan, Pakistan... My sister speaks good English and often invites them to dinner, and we conquer others outside by food. These policemen often talked to me about the history of China, about the Three Kingdoms, and even About Confucius and Zhuang Zhou Mengdi, and they all knew that at first I was quite surprised.
I photographed a basketball court in Kosovo.
But Kosovo is ultimately a bit chaotic.
Not long after I arrived, a friend came from Hong Kong, we went to pick him up, only to meet a few people on the road who were drunk and drunk and wanted to beat me, at first I pushed a person down, and then they didn't dare to hit me, they beat my friend. There were some old Serb ladies next to us, who surrounded us in a circle and wouldn't let them fight. After this incident, I have a special affection for the Serbs.
I learned to paint, especially interested in the culture of the monastery, often nothing to take a camera to shoot, once came across a park, fenced up, there is a monastery inside, I went in a circle to take a picture, after the shooting out of the car ready to go, look back at the outside posted a sign, a skull head a thunder, it turned out to be a minefield, scared me at that time A cold sweat.
Photo taken when I stumbled into a minefield.
There was a serious ethnic conflict in Kosovo that I also caught up with.
Around 2004, on a river equivalent to a demarcation between Albanians and Serbs, children of the two ethnic groups clashed over swimming, and one ethnic Albanian child drowned, causing particularly serious ethnic violence in the area. Thousands of people demonstrated near the Mitrovica Bridge on the river, which eventually turned into a riot.
We were living in the A district, which was all Muslims, and there was no pork for sale, so if we wanted to buy it, we had to go to the Sai district to buy it. We happened to be driving to the race area that day to buy, and we were just passing through the bridge on the road, and as a result, we saw thousands of people facing each other on both sides of the bridge, and we couldn't cross it at all. Many young people with torches in their hands threw Molotov cocktails at the armored vehicles of the Un United Nations peacekeepers, and they burned everywhere, injuring people on both sides.
I was still shooting there with my camera, and everyone around me thought I was a journalist. I didn't feel scared at all on the spot, and when I returned home and saw CCTV International Broadcast, I realized that it was really terrible.
The riots I experienced in Kosovo.
We were okay in Business in Kosovo, and then we were targeted, and in two months the family was stolen six or seven times in a row, once, we moved the house, and after moving the thief and then stealing, and finally moved to a rich area with a high level of security, we finally did not steal.
The first time was near the Spring Festival, when our local Chinese gathered at a friend's house to celebrate, and when we returned home, we found that our home was turned into a mess and lost tens of thousands of euros. After the alarm, more than a dozen police cars and policemen came with submachine guns, and after they came, they took evidence and made a set of records, but it was useless, and the thief did not catch it.
Later, there was another time when we stole our passports, and when we wanted to go back to China, we couldn't get the goods. The number of times you have been stolen is more, the police come to see, how is it you again? In the end, they all became friends. But the Kosovo police have never caught a thief who stole our house. Later I went to Serbia, Serbia is different, serbia can be caught by the Serbian police.
I took a picture of it in Kosovo.
After my home was stolen, I was worried that the store would also be stolen, so I went to live in the store. In the basement of the store, I set up a sofa, turned on a heater and slept for half a year. At that time, there were frequent power outages in Kosovo, and the power supply was two or three hours a day, and we all brought our own generators from the country and put them at home to supply electricity. When I slept in the basement, I took a radio and put a tape and played Andy Lau's songs.
NATO vehicles driving on the streets of Kosovo.
The time of being stolen coincided with SARS in 2003, and suddenly the business in the store was not good, and the turnover changed from several thousand euros a day to hundreds of dozens, and it was not clear what was going on. Foreigners did not dare to come in, and those who came in also covered their mouths. One look at the news, oh, SARS.
There is no turnover, the family is also tens of thousands of euros, tens of thousands of euros so stolen, no way, I will drag the goods to the local market to sell, today to catch this set, tomorrow to catch that set, or barely able to sell some.
Once in the market also met a few young men, deliberately provocative, pointing at us and saying, "You are a virus", I was particularly angry, when it was snowing, I took an umbrella and knocked him, and fought with them, and finally they couldn't fight and ran. It was really hard then.
I really didn't like Kosovo, and I thought the business environment was too bad, so I went to Montenegro.
I was in Montenegro with a friend.
I went to Montenegro to sell swimwear, beach pants, beach blankets and other things. But the business in this part of Montenegro can only be done for half a year, only in the summer there are people, and then my second sister went to Serbia to do business and needed help, so I went to Serbia.
We opened a clothing wholesale store in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, the business is OK, after I went, my second sister was responsible for returning to China to purchase goods, and I was responsible for staying in the store.
Serbia has a very good relationship with China, the local people are of higher quality, and they are friendly to the Chinese, so there are relatively more Chinese in Serbia, and the business environment is much better than in Kosovo. Security in Serbia is also very good, I dare to go to the bar in the middle of the night, and I have also met little Ronaldo.
In 2005, our family officially began to make swimwear, and also registered two brands, which are slowly becoming a bit famous in the local area.
Swimwear hanging in my shop.
In the first month of 2009, we went home for the New Year, when I was 27 years old, my mother said, when the time comes to get married, I will ask my mother to find me. My mother asked everywhere, came back to report to me, reported to the third girl, is the sister of my classmate, the same village, belongs to the cattle, also learned to draw, I said, just this, let's go and see.
In fact, we met when we were children, but we didn't see each other when we grew up. Then we went to her house for dinner, and I glanced at the table. My father and I liked it at first glance. The first time I ate, I didn't have a chance to talk, so I added QQ. After staying on the mainland for a month or two, we were in contact for a month or two, and when we returned home at the end of the year, we were both married.
Our two families were a few hundred meters apart, and on the day of the wedding, we spread the red carpet directly to her house, and I took my wife home on a tricycle.
Photos taken by my wife and I when we got married.
After starting a family, the family will divide the swimwear for us to do, because swimsuit is a summer business, as long as it is busy for half a year, the rest of the time can be played everywhere.
I used to learn to paint, aesthetics and what is more basic, when I participated in the design, it did a good job, many people from neighboring countries went to me to purchase, the hottest time, a container of goods, just arrived on the sale.
But I've also stepped on a lot of pits. Once went to a factory in Yiwu to get the goods, checked and I left, the result of the goods sent over, I found that they put the goods packaged, replaced by some styles, colors are very bad. That batch of swimsuits more than a million, in the end can only be all at a loss to deal with, into the more than thirty pieces, only to sell two euros, a loss of more than half, but also to pay taxes, equal to more than a million spent out, only to get back two or three hundred thousand.
There are other pits to step on. For example, Orthodox Christians don't like yellow, we didn't know it when we first started, we went into a batch of yellow swimsuits, and sold them for five years before they sold out. Sometimes I am too far ahead of the curve, such as fluorescent colors, in 2012 I purchased a lot, because the United States has been very popular, but I have not yet begun to popular in Serbia, can only deal with low prices. It took two years for Serbia to become popular.
At that time, it was not as developed as the Internet is now, there was no time difference in the world, the fashion trends were similar, and at that time, mainstream countries such as the United States and Italy were popular first, and every other year or two, small countries like Serbia were popular.
After stepping on many pits, the swimsuit business gradually stabilized, and I ran around in Serbia to play.
One day in 2012, I saw a picture of a log cabin built on a rock in the river in National Geographic magazine. At that time, it seemed that the hut was the longest nail household, which was built in 1968, and was destroyed several times by the flood in the middle, and the owner of the hut rebuilt it. As soon as I saw that this chalet was in Serbia, I said I must check it out.
I took a photo of a cabin in the river in 2017.
I drove to the location of the hut, saw that there was no boat and no one, swam over, and broke my phone.
Swimming to the other side of the house, I met the owner of the hut, Miloš. He said, why do you want to swim over, I can row a boat to take you over. Miloš told me the story of this hut, how to build it, and told me that his uncle was a former coach of the Chinese national football team, Milu, I was a fan, I was particularly excited to hear it, Milo, and the Chinese of our generation respected it.
We later became very good friends.
Me and Miloš (right).
I also gave him advice, I said, your cottage from time to time people come to see, you charge ten dollars, responsible for carrying people into the hut, and then pour a coffee beer or something, so that you do not have the cost of maintaining the hut?
Miloš is also in charge of Miloš's former residence in Serbia, I also suggested that he make a homestay, and later I opened a travel agency to bring a lot of Chinese tourists to live, everyone liked it very much.
Milu is generally received by Miloš back to Serbia. Milu loves Chinese food, and Miloš often brings him to eat with me. Milu is very funny and humorous in private, and the first time I met me, I asked, you have been in Serbia for so long, have you found a Serbian girlfriend? I said, unfortunately, I'm not attractive enough. Miluhaha laughed, then I am different from you.
Me (first from right) and Milu (center).
Until the 2009 financial crisis, my business in Serbia was good. After the financial crisis, tariffs rose, the cost of guests increased, and at first my business was able to cover neighboring countries, but then it gradually stopped. I have relatives and friends living and doing business all over the world, and I go everywhere to see and look for opportunities, and at that time I went to see the Czech Republic, Poland, Africa, Chile, and so on, all of which went to see, and the whole world ran.
When I was in middle school, I was exposed to a lot of music, listening to the Tang Dynasty with my classmates and listening to the Zero Point Band, then we said that we wanted to liberate the world, and then I said, if you can't liberate the world, just wear liberation shoes to "liberate the world". I ran all over the world, and I took pictures with my liberation shoes. I posted these photos of my on Douyin, and many people like it.
I wear liberation shoes to take pictures all over the world.
But the real opportunity to expand business, in fact, only in 2015 I went with my eldest sister to Invest in a supermarket in Texas, usa, when the scale was still quite large, a total of more than 20,000 square meters, ready to do clothing daily necessities.
At that time, I proposed to use the Internet for retail, using the United States as a warehouse, China to do production, asking models to take pictures in Serbia, selling in the United States, and radiating to the whole of Latin America. But at the time, our partners were all committed to being entities. I have fewer shares, and I can't ask everyone to do what I do. I was in charge of the renovation, and after the renovation, I felt hopeless and went back to Serbia.
Later, the supermarket did not open, and it was disposed of in 2017.
I was in the United States during the renovation of the supermarket.
During my time in the United States, relations between China and Serbia have been on the rise, and by 2017, the two countries will be visa-free. More and more Chinese are coming to Serbia.
One day I met a Chinese netizen named Tino Leung, he said, can I ask you for a favor, I am particularly interested in Serbia, in the collection of Serbian information, but can hardly find any Chinese information. As soon as I saw that this young man was particularly good, the photos were very good, and the articles were well written, I said you come and I will give you a free driver as a tour guide.
When he came to Serbia, I took him with me and went all over Serbia to see and play, churches, castles, including miloš's river huts.
Tino is taking pictures.
Tino wrote a particularly detailed travelogue after returning home, which has always ranked first in China's tourism forums and estimated to be among the balkan regions of the whole network. Because he did his homework the most.
After the publication of Tino's travelogue, suddenly many Chinese netizens came to find me, looking for a chartered car to find a guide, but at that time, few in Serbia did tourism. Plus after the visa-free in China, there were more of my own relatives and friends who came here to play, I received people from China every day at that time, I remember that five groups of friends came in two months, I often went outside all day, and then came back to get a dress, and left, sent away this group and went to pick up the next batch.
After a long time, the wife is not happy, free to play with others, but also to spend their own money, how can this work? I thought, since I have to help every day, more than the tour guide arranged, just do it myself.
I (first from left) and two partners from the travel agency, Duo Lai (second from left) and De Yang (second from left).
I think of a buddy who came to me to open a travel agency in 2015. My buddy used to be a SWAT in Serbia, and then he went to a Travel Agency in France to drive, earning more than the salary of a DRY SWAT, he came to me in 2015 and said, I drive in Europe, most of the passengers are Chinese tourists, we simply do a travel agency ourselves, we will receive Chinese tourists. I said no, what should I do with this visa? Then I stopped, and I went to the United States to open a supermarket.
It just so happened that the two countries were visa-free and the visa problem was solved, so I went to dig him out and found another friend of mine who was a translator, and the three of us partnered to open a Walter travel agency and do the travel agency business myself.
I myself hate the traditional Chinese trip of getting on and off the bus to sleep, so we engage in the exquisite free trip of 6 people and 15 people chartered cars, customizing the itinerary for the guests, we get out of the car, the driver and tour guide, the restaurant and the hotel are fixed for the guests, and the rest is played with the guests themselves. We also added scenes from the old films Walter Defending Sarajevo and The Bridge to our travel itinerary. In fact, our older generation still has a lot of feelings for Yugoslavia.
The travel agency has actually done a good job in recent years, the whole team has been established, and there are cooperation with taxi companies and other aspects, and it has also been on CCTV for half an hour.
I (first from right) and my colleagues at work at the travel agency.
In 2019, we are about to make a big deal, investing 200,000 to 300,000 euros and buying a new batch of German commercial vehicles. As a result, the money was invested, and the epidemic came. After the outbreak of the epidemic in China, our business basically stopped, and no one came.
There were more than twenty of us in the travel agency, and at the beginning I was able to guarantee the salaries of the employees, and I had to leave the drivers who served well. Then there was no way. After half a year, my driver took the initiative to ask me for a half salary cut.
The pandemic has also hit my swimwear business hard, and sales are now less than a third of what it was before the pandemic. The swimwear market has almost been destroyed by the epidemic, and everyone cannot communicate, cannot travel to other places, and swimwear cannot move. In the past, foreigners could not find people in the summer, they were all on the beach, and now they can't go. The backlog of inventories is particularly high now, and we have not invested more in this area.
Walter's business was suspended and I was stuck at home for a year. It wasn't until 2020, when the wine grapes were about to be picked, that the owner of a winery we often went to came to me and said that he had encountered business difficulties and hoped that we could take over his winery. In the past, most of the wine in this winery was bought by our guests.
Everyone works in the vineyard.
A few of us discussed it, thinking that I was okay in terms of sales, so I controlled the winery, and although the travel agency is still there, the employees have gone to the winery to work, helping to pour wine and plant grapes.
At the end of 2020, my wife and I will return to China to sell and open up markets in China. Now the first wine we brought back is almost sold out.
The year of the outbreak was the hardest year I've felt in so many years. Travel agencies have no business, swimwear stores have no income, money is smashed into the travel agency, by May and June, the factory will urge money, swimwear or whatever owes money to pay, the travel agency will pay wages... Fortunately, I survived with the help of my friends.
Now I am more thinking about doing a good job in the red wine business in the past two years. I am also ready to introduce Serbia to The TikTok live after the Spring Festival. After the epidemic is over, sooner or later I will have to go back to Serbia to continue to travel, and I think Serbia will definitely explode, because after all, I am close to Chinese.
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