【Qingdao News Network Exclusive】
(Reporter Yu Hong)
Some people have mines at home, but Chu Zhenxu plays much more high-end, and he has contracted tens of thousands of hectares of large-leaf rosewood primary forest in the South Pacific island country.
Before the story begins, let's introduce the protagonist's personality. As a celebrity in Qingdao's industrial circle, Chu Zhenxu has done a good job in the field of energy-saving science and technology that he is good at, 20 years of business and sea ups and downs, chu Zhenxu who has passed the year of confusion has also achieved financial freedom early, if he wants to, the second half of his life to walk the bird as a rich and idle person has no problem.
In the face of such a basic disk of "lying to win", the big brother who is not bad money played a big game, spent hundreds of millions of yuan, ran to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific to contract tens of thousands of hectares of large-leaf rosewood primary forest, and sprinkled a lot of money to build a mahogany furniture processing factory in Qingdao, hired mahogany design masters and carvers with high salaries, and crossed the border into the field of mahogany furniture.
Veteran mahogany fans have opened a factory that they can't play on their own
"At first, I didn't think about the return of opening a factory, I just liked it." Chu Zhenxu was qualified enough to say this.
Chu Jiazu has been doing food processing business in Qingdao, and in that turbulent era, his family was also well-off. The ancestors were extremely elaborate on the furnishings of the home, and among the many woods, they especially preferred the mahogany that used to be only for the royal family, so in Chu Zhenxu's childhood memories, all kinds of mahogany furniture was part of the home.
Although the mahogany furniture in the home was later burned, this mahogany plot had already taken root in his heart.
Like many entrepreneurial stories, in the later tide of reform and opening up, Chu Zhenxu, who has a family tradition of doing business, can be said to be like a fish, running an industry, doing investment, and soon created a famous hall, after not worrying about bread, Chu Zhenxu engaged in mahogany collection, from the initial ornaments, bracelets, to a variety of Ming and Qing mahogany furniture, all mahogany-related crafts, antiques, are the target of his collection.
If there is no later twist, Chu Zhenxu's position will always stay in the ordinary player's position. In 2010, as a representative of the cooperative enterprise, Chu Zhenxu was invited to the Shanghai World Expo to participate in the 50th anniversary of the Cyprus Pavilion, during which he wandered among the venues of various countries, and the exhibits of a South Pacific island country attracted his interest.
"I know that kind of wood, big-leaf rosewood, one of the densest woods in the world, I dare not say that it is the leader of mahogany, but it is no problem to enter the top five." Immersed in the field of mahogany collection for many years, Chu Zhenxu saw at a glance the value of the wood of these crafts on display, and then inquired, it turned out that this large-leaf rosewood came from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, and there are currently only 40,000 tons of logs available for cutting in the world, and the scarcity is far more than gold.
"I have a habit of collecting, and when I see something good, I want to collect it." After understanding the scarcity of this large-leaf rosewood wood, Chu Zhenxu had a bold idea to receive all these good things to China, which was also his original intention of playing mahogany across borders.
The primeval forest contracted by Chu Zhenxu
Qingdao entrepreneurs become "landlords" in the South Pacific
Land contracting, when placed in any country, has to go through a long period of formalities, let alone go to the South Pacific island countries thousands of miles away.
Here it is necessary to introduce the Solomon Islands, as an island country in the South Pacific, Solomon Islands is one of the least developed countries in the world (low-level development countries), although the official language is English, but there are more than 990 islands in the country, the people speak more than 80 indigenous languages, the country has no army, only rely on more than 800 police to maintain order, which invisibly increases the difficulty for Chu Zhenxu's "Taobao".
Because primary forest harvesting requires strict approval, in order to enable this high-quality mahogany to enter China's high-end timber market, Chu Zhenxu has traveled to and from the islands many times in a year, done a lot of work, obtained the certification of the local government and the World Forest Organization, and contracted a large number of local primary forest resources, and finally brought the high-quality large-leaf rosewood produced from the South Pacific Islands into China.
After getting such a good raw material, what does Chu Zhenxu want to do next?
"Some friends advised me to just put it up or sell it directly, but I thought it was a pity." Chu Zhenxu's ambition is great, he wants these precious woods to be truly integrated into China, become a part of the life of the Chinese people, made into furniture or works of art, no matter what the final fate of these things, it can always be passed down from generation to generation in the hands of the Chinese people.
Chu Zhenxu thought so, and did so, while becoming a "landlord" in the South Pacific, he also opened a furniture processing factory in Qingdao, hired mahogany design masters and carvers with high salaries, and accompanied him to play with large-leaf rosewood. So far, Chu Zhenxu has been counted as an industrial chain with his own interests, and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars before and after with conservative estimates.
A professional carver invited by Chu Zhenxu
"I want to regain the temperature of old furniture"
Smashed hundreds of millions of dollars, but also run the South Pacific, but also in Qingdao to build a factory, toss such a circle of value? Chu Zhenxu's answer was yes.
First of all, from the perspective of businessmen, in recent years, the domestic mahogany market has continued to rise, in the collection world, mahogany as a precious material no less than gold is more and more favored by people, and large-leaf rosewood as a scarce wood, limited reserves have created its huge appreciation space.
"If I had been trying to make money at the beginning, to be honest I wouldn't have taken such a big risk, there are a lot of more secure and faster-yielding projects to invest in." Chu Zhenxu said that what really made him make up his mind to do this was his own mahogany plot in recent decades.
"If you look at these things in our house now, which one can really be passed down?" Chu Zhenxu said that in the past, a table of eight immortals or a pair of circle chairs in the family can often be passed on to generations, and good wood can not only withstand the test of time, but also in the inheritance of a generation, there is more than a bit of family warmth, children and grandchildren may have long forgotten the appearance of their ancestors, but the things left by the elderly are still there, and seeing things and thinking about people is this truth.
It is precisely because of this plot that Chu Zhenxu set a rule, all parents who buy dowries for their children, all discounts, compared to the cars and electrical appliances that parents now distribute at every turn, he believes that these objects that can really be handed down are more valuable, and he himself is also within the scope of his ability to promote his own ideas.
Of course, choosing to open his own factory to do mahogany, Chu Zhenxu also wants to provide a guarantee for friends who play mahogany around him. A few years ago, Chu Zhenxu's brothers spent millions to buy a set of mahogany sofas known as small leaf rosewood, invited to the past long eyes he found that there was something wrong with this set of sofas, careful identification, found that this wood is not small leaf rosewood at all, the cost of wood is more than 20,000, the internal texture is all painted by workers.
"At least with my reputation, friends in the circle can buy the real thing." Chu Zhenxu said that as a veteran mahogany enthusiast, he wants more friends to be able to buy real things.
Although decades have passed, but talking about the various mahogany furniture that was burned in the home at that time, Chu Zhenxu still can't help but have some regrets, sometimes people's memories will gradually fade with the disappearance of these old objects, perhaps Chu Zhenxu has done so much, in fact, he wants to find something again.
In addition to setting up a factory, Chu Zhenxu also opened a rosewood exhibition hall on Jinsong Fourth Road
Mahogany furniture exhibited by Chu Zhenxu