【Opening words】 The times have created young people, and prosperous times have achieved young people. 2022 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth League of China, the hope of the country is in the youth, and the future of the nation is in the youth. The times have given young people more opportunities and more choices, and today there are also many "slash youths" with multiple identities and occupations, multiple jobs and lifestyles, they innovate and create, they work hard and enjoy life, they integrate the "small goals" of personal struggle into the "big blueprint" of the times, and they dedicate their youth to every inch of land under their feet.
"The future of Shenhe Village should be a big garden, not only beautiful scenery, but also a variety of characteristic cuisines, farming culture of folk culture display, villagers can also come back to work and start a business, the pride of their hometown will become stronger and stronger." It is a youth dream.
"Let me take you to taste Boss Dong's button bowl and cauldron dish, my chef can't make this old taste, you have to publicize him well." Don't treat your peers as enemies, this is a youthful atmosphere.
In the face of the garden destroyed by the heavy rain, he made up his mind while shooting a short video, even if he was bitter, he immediately threw himself into reconstruction after crying, laughing and joking with employees, which is the indomitable resilience of a young man.
Shen Tao in the vegetable table
"I am Shen Tao, an ordinary farmer", Shen Tao has said many times in this opening statement. In the video, he shared with netizens the Shen family compound he had built with his own hands, and the pavilions and water pavilions, cave dwellings, flowers, insects and fish, and a small donkey pulling a stone mill.
"I said so because I was doing the business of an ordinary farmer," Shen Tao, who was pulling spinach from his vegetable stall, told reporters with a smile on the morning of April 20. At this time, in the bright spring sun, the spinach in his hand was shiny green. For Shen Tao's identity, it can be described as follows: farm owner / returning youth / Douyin small net red / Shenhe rural tourism dreamer planner practitioner.
Shen family compound
In front of Shen Tao's body, there is a thatched house and a corridor, with flowers, water wheels, and stone mills scattered among them; Behind him, there were rows of cave dwellings, private rooms where guests ate. Here, is the Shen family compound, covering an area of 36,000 square meters, known as the southwest suburb of Zhengzhou "paradise".
Shenjia Compound is located in Shenhe Village, Mazhai Village, Erqi District, Zhengzhou City. Shen Tao, 38 years old this year, is a native of Shenhe.
"Slash Youth" Returns to Their Hometown to Start a Business and "Proof" for the Revitalization of Their Hometown
In 2003, Shen Tao graduated from university. After graduating for 12 years, he has been drifting outside.
The first job belonged to the Internet industry. After a few years of work, he became a media person again.
In 2008, he entered the decoration industry again. He stayed in this industry for 7 years, with a keen sense of the market and strong execution, and finally became the deputy general manager of a large decoration company in Zhengzhou. "At that time, I also earned the first pot of gold in my life," Shen Tao said, "which also laid the material foundation for me to return to my hometown to start a business." ”
Driving from Zhengzhou to Shenhe Village, it takes less than half an hour to reach. In the past, the neighbors in the village also opened farms with different styles of large and small styles, and accumulated a certain amount of experience.
After the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland's rural reform has launched a new layout. In the development of new industries and new formats in rural areas, many support policies have been introduced from the state to the provinces to the cities and districts. Seeing such a good policy and environment, Shen Tao came up with the idea of returning to his hometown to run an ecological farm.
In July 2015, with the support of the village committee, Shen Tao began to organize the Shen family compound. After nearly a year of hard work, on May 1, 2016, the Shenjia compound was officially opened.
"In 2016 alone, we hosted more than 70,000 people. In 2017, the number of visitors exceeded 130,000. When the reporter asked why it was so accurate, Shen Tao was a little proud: "Count the chopsticks!" That bowl of chopsticks, the purchase quantity is a certain, the inventory is also a certain, these two a reduction, is not the amount of guest consumption!"
In 2020, despite the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the number of people received by the Shen family compound exceeded 170,000.
The Shen family compound is getting "bigger" and the jobs provided for the village are gradually increasing. Shen Tao was very happy. But his goal is not just to increase employment in the village.
"At that time, the purpose of building the Shen family compound was to 'make a model' for returning to the hometown to start a business, drive the villagers, and lay the foundation for the development of the hometown." Shen Tao said his original intention, but also shared with us the difficulty of returning to his hometown to start a business, "The main difficulty lies in having to endure the colored glasses of a small number of people, who will think that everything you do is to make money; It is also necessary to mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers so that they can consciously enter the great cause of rural tourism, which must let them see tangible benefits."
Indeed it is. Seeing that Shen Tao succeeded, he originally opened a braised noodle restaurant in Zhengzhou and opened a shop at home, and the people in the village also learned from it, selling bowls, sheep's hooves, and large stewed vegetables, and together with Shen Tao, engaged in differentiated operations. "Everyone's shop is booming." Shen Tao said, "You see, there are a lot of college students who have just graduated, and they have also returned to their hometowns and worked here. ”
Almost extinguished dreams, not knocked down, more confident
Shen Tao was ready to expand the size of the Shen family compound once again.
However, on July 20, 2021, a sudden and exceptionally heavy rain disaster almost dashed his hopes.
"I couldn't cry at that time!" Shen Tao opened his mobile phone and broadcast us the video taken at that time: the wall collapsed, the pavilion collapsed, the cave also collapsed, the ground was more than a meter thick, and the electrical appliances were all soaked in water. In the earliest video, Shen Tao was trapped in the knee-deep mud, hissing and panting: "It's very difficult to take a step now!"
The "7.20" rainstorm seriously damaged the Shen family compound
But Shen Tao was not defeated by the disaster. When the dredging was cleared, he thanked the government for sending excavators and garbage removal trucks. In the video, he says, "That helped us a lot. When rebuilding the compound, he painted the grape and lantern stands with the workers, joking that "this work can cure cervical spondylosis"; Cleaning up the water purification system, he looked at the newborn reeds with hope, "by next spring, it will be a brand new reed swinging"; When cleaning up and repairing the cave, he pointed at the chef and teased, "This one put down the big spoon and picked up the water gun, will he still cook when the time comes?"
Video recording the reconstruction process of the Shen family compound
In this way, in the 5 months of restoring the Shen family compound, Shen Tao became a video broadcaster, recording the bits and pieces of reconstruction with video, and many friends and old patrons gave him encouragement. When interacting with netizens, he said that this was "to cheer himself up."
"I almost became an internet celebrity!" Shen Tao was a little proud, "When interacting with netizens, it really makes my heart firmer." ”
The Shen family compound was rebuilt
"Stone ground tofu" grinds out of the "little youth" and big dreams
On the short video platform, Shen Tao's name is "Dream Chasing Little Youth", which is quite a bit of a popular name, hiding Shen Tao's big dream.
"The future of Shenhe Village should be along this 'ditch' into a large garden, not only beautiful scenery, there are a variety of characteristic cuisines, there are many experience projects can fully display the folk culture of farming culture, primary and secondary school students in Zhengzhou can come here to study, the elderly can enjoy the pastoral health here."
This dream originated from the characteristics of the Shen family compound - "stone ground tofu".
Donkey pulls stone grinding to grind out tofu
Shen Tao's ancestors have a tradition of grinding tofu, and now it has a history of more than 100 years. When building the Shen family compound, Shen Tao mainly focused on the traditional stone ground tofu, and soon, the tofu ground out of the stone grinding with a donkey became the characteristic of the Shen family compound, and dozens of "tofu dishes" were widely popular. At present, stone ground tofu has been rated as the intangible cultural heritage of Zhengzhou. Shen Tao was very happy.
Shenhe Folk Culture Square (Data Map)
"In the future, there will be iron, weaving, and pottery on the streets of Shenhe, and tourists can not only buy tourist goods of folk culture, but also experience the production process," Shen Tao said, "Shenhe has three treasures, Yu bamboo, golden crab, and hairy grass, and people outside do not know and need to industrialize them."
"Grinding tofu can be successful, I believe that other characteristic industries can also succeed, but this needs to be guided and driven," Shen Tao said, "let the villagers see the tangible benefits brought by rural tourism, tourists come, villagers can also come back to work and start a business, and the pride in their hometown will become stronger and stronger."
This is Shen Tao's ideal.
"Although it is advantageous to occupy the time and place, it is not easy to return to the hometown to start a business." If the ideal is 100 points, I don't come back, then it can only be zero, I come back, work hard and work harder, I can do 90 points, and I will be satisfied." Standing on the edge of the reeds full of new green, Shen Tao was full of confidence.