■ Hainan Daily reporter Gao Yi
Approaching the "May Day" holiday, young people working in the old town of Chengmai are no longer in a hurry to rush back to Haikou, some go into trendy cafes, listen to music and taste coffee, some call friends to go to the outdoor night market to watch a performance when night falls, and some get together to discuss the details of e-commerce entrepreneurship and study entrepreneurial policies...... With the gradual advancement of urban renewal construction, Chengmai retains the imprint of time while also radiating more and more youthful atmosphere.
In recent years, Chengmai has strengthened the work of young talents, focusing on improving the happiness and sense of belonging of young friends who start businesses and work in Chengmai.
The relevant person in charge of the Chengmai County Committee of the Communist Youth League introduced that young people have a non-negligible role in promoting the high-quality development of the economy, society and urban construction, from paying attention to the power of youth, to cultivating youth vitality, and then to promoting the healthy development of young people in depth, Chengmai County has done everything possible to attract and unite young people, and strive to realize the two-way flow of youth and the city.
In the small courtyard café of the second ring road of Chengmai, everyone listened to music and drank coffee. Photo by reporter Gao Yi
A
Create new consumption scenarios that attract young people
How to make a cup of coffee that young people love to drink?
"That's a question a lot of first-time coffee people ask me. On April 26, the café in the small courtyard of the second ring of Chengmai was full of people, and the manager Chen Ping replied while making coffee that what he liked was the best.
Chen Ping is a native of Chengmai County. "My habit of drinking coffee was developed from a young age. Chen Ping remembers that the first cup of coffee he drank was Fushan coffee, and the bitter and sweet taste was deeply planted in his heart, and nostalgia was also buried deep in his heart.
After graduating from university, Chen Ping has worked in many places in the province. "Even if I get a job that pays well, I still miss my hometown coffee late at night. Chen Ping said that the first thing he does when he goes home is to have a cup of coffee with like-minded friends.
At the end of 2022, Chen Ping came to the old town and opened a café called Chengmai Second Ring Courtyard.
Why did you choose to set up shop in the Old Town?
"It's a fun thing. Chen Ping said that in recent years, there have been many coffee shops in Chengmai, the owners are young people, including many white-collar workers, in his opinion, the old city is becoming more and more fashionable and inclusive, more and more young people, and there will be more and more groups that accept and like coffee.
In order to capture the taste buds of young people, Chen Ping began to make delicious and interesting coffee.
On the simple and clear drink list, the fruit coffee product made of seasonal fruits and iced drip coffee is sweet and sour, which is very popular with customers, but it is placed at the bottom by Chen Ping, and the top of the drink list is the purest Chengmai local coffee, which is Chen Ping's obsession with coffee.
"A coffee with heart can accompany the taste buds of those who are on the go. Chen Ping told reporters that youth culture such as salons, flash mobs, talk shows, and diverse music will also continue to be staged in this town, and jointly bring the freshest trend and vitality back to the old city.
This is Chen Ping's expectation, and it is also the wish of many young people at present.
"Coffee satisfies modern people's imagination of 'urbanity'. Invisibly, these young people holding coffee cups are also shaping everyone's new image of the old city, making it more youthful and more fireworks. The relevant person in charge of the Chengmai County Party Committee of the Communist Youth League told reporters that as coffee shops have risen from the ground and become a "flow" to attract young people, new consumption scenes are constantly emerging, so that young people like and yearn for here, so as to create basic conditions for employment, work and life here in the future.
Tourists play on the beach of the Yinghama Peninsula. Photo by reporter Chen Yuancai
B
Build an incubation platform that links culture and industry
When night falls, the lights come on, the flow of people pours in, the fragrance in front of the stalls is overflowing, and the Dongpo Pedestrian Street is lively again.
On April 28, Liao Minling, chairman of Hainan Shengkai Yurun Trading Co., Ltd., who came to Dongpo Pedestrian Street to inspect the work as usual, stood in front of the statue of Su Dongpo on the pedestrian street and recalled his youth in Chengmai.
In 2013, 25-year-old Liao Minling came to Chengmai to engage in engineering construction-related work. "It turned out that this alley was a stall market, and our team often came here for dinner, and we were a regular visitor to this neighborhood. Liao Minling told reporters that as more and more young people poured into the old city, he found that many young people did not have a gathering place, and over time, he began to think about whether this familiar "old place" could be made into a new "new place." ”
Just do it, Liao Minling started the first business in his life. "At that time, I had no experience and no resources, and I was very cautious at every step, from finding a venue, attracting investment, to designing and operating. Liao Minling said that at that time, the old town extended an olive branch to them.
After many discussions and preliminary inspections in various places, in 2023, the old town will officially launch the "Chengmai Dongpo Pedestrian Street" project, and the first night market block with the theme of "Dongpo Culture" in Chengmai came into being.
In the process of building the Dongpo Pedestrian Street project, Liao Minling also really felt the strength of the team: various government policy support, good business environment, enough fertile soil for entrepreneurship, and the cost of trial and error in entrepreneurship was greatly reduced, giving them the courage to continue to realize their dreams.
"During the construction of the site, I have been inspecting the construction site, communicating with the workers, understanding the construction situation, and adjusting the design plan according to the specific situation. The local government has coordinated in a timely manner from the construction of the project to the division of surrounding parking spaces and the setting of traffic warning signs. Liao Minling told reporters that now with the support of many forces, Dongpo Pedestrian Street is not only a night economy bazaar, but also a business incubation platform, based on the cultural heritage and rich industrial ecology of the old city area, through the introduction of live e-commerce, music and other formats to empower the real economy.
A few days ago, Chengmai County Dongpo Pedestrian Street held a youth music sharing meeting. Photo by reporter Gao Yi
C
Deeply cultivate the fertile soil for youth entrepreneurship
Nanhai series of local talents, Hainan Province model worker ...... There are many eye-catching labels on Chen Dawei, who was born in the 90s, but the most conspicuous label is "Brother Pepper". And he and Pepper got started with a complaint from his roommate in college.
Chen Dawei found that consumers cannot buy high-quality Hainan pepper online, and farmers who grow pepper in Chengmai still struggle to sell high-quality selenium-rich white pepper even though they have had a bumper harvest.
David Chen saw a business opportunity. For a long time afterward, Chen Dawei went deep into the countryside to deal with farmers, determined the source of pepper, and went to some e-commerce companies in Haikou to learn the experience of online store operation, and began to sell Chengmai selenium-rich white pepper online.
For Chen Dawei, who strives for quality excellence, he requires that the people who harvest pepper must have many years of planting experience, and the farmers who grow pepper must use farmhouse fertilizer; each peppercorn must go through multiple procedures to select high-quality pepper before it can be packaged and sold.
As the pepper business grows bigger and bigger, Chen Dawei's fame has also grown, not only entering colleges and universities to pass on entrepreneurial experience to graduates who are about to enter the society, but also conducting e-commerce skills training in many places in the province.
With the support of a series of policies in Chengmai County, Chen Dawei's company has been launched on a number of mainstream e-commerce platforms, and its products are also sold in many supermarkets, specialty stores and scenic spots in the province.
Young people gather because of the city, and the city thrives because of the youth.
"We will create a policy environment and social environment that meets the diverse and multi-level development needs of young people, so that the vitality of youth and the vitality of the city can stimulate each other, and the development of youth and the development of the city will promote each other, so as to achieve the goal of 'Chengmai is more friendly to young people and young people are more promising in Chengmai'. The relevant person in charge of the Chengmai County Committee of the Communist Youth League said that the next step will be to better focus on the needs of young people, achieve what young people think, inject positive youth energy into urban development, and let young people resonate with the city at the same frequency and move towards the future together.
(Hainan Daily, Jinjiang, April 29)