Text/ Golden Wrong Knife Channel Xiang Liao
Friendly tip: Friends who are afraid of snakes, watch with caution.
China has many magical small villages, small towns and small counties, although the place is small, but it can make an industry bigger and stronger, and even achieve the first in the industry.
The small village I want to talk about today, called Zisiqiao Village, is equally magical.
Zisiqiao Village is located in Xinshi Town, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, with an area of only 1 square kilometer and a population of just over 800 people, but at most it raised more than 3 million snakes!
The outside world calls it: China's First Snake Village.
For this kind of typical wealth, CCTV will naturally not be absent from the report.
As soon as the reporter arrived at Zisiqiao Village, the local snake farmers were like offering Hada, wrapping two snakes around her neck.
Frightened, the reporter was discolored, and quickly confirmed: Is there any poison?
After entering the village, the reporter walked to the outside of a snake pond, and the snake farmers in the pool lifted the lid for her, only to see a nest of highly poisonous pit vipers lying down to rest... This scene scares people out of the psychological shadow even more.
Not only can the CCTV reporters not hold on, but none of the reporters of other TELEVISION stations can remain calm.
One reporter even brought in a bench and stood on it to report, but eventually fled into the wilderness.
Seeing the reaction of the reporters, netizens all felt the same way.
Aren't the residents of Zisiqiao Village afraid? How was China's first snake village trained?
The residents of Zisiqiao Village were initially afraid of snakes.
But they are more afraid of poverty.
More than forty years ago, Zisiqiao Village was still a poor village, and no one's life was good, but they couldn't find a good way out.
Like many cases of rural poverty alleviation and prosperity, they need a "leading big brother" to first wade out of a successful road before they dare to start a business with confidence.
Yang Hongchang is such a "leading big brother", he is the first snake farmer in the village.
Embarking on the road of raising snakes, Yang Hongchang was also forced.
When he was young, Yang Hongchang suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, but he couldn't afford to buy medicine, and an old Chinese medicine doctor suggested: There are snakes in your hometown of Moganshan, or you go home and grab some snakes to drink and drink.
In order to cure the disease, Yang Hongchang went up the mountain to catch snakes, and as the snake replenishment technology became more and more skilled, the snakes he caught were not only enough for himself to eat, but also had the surplus to sell to small traders who bought medicinal materials.
Gradually, his health improved, and he made more and more money by selling snakes.
The idea of making a fortune by raising snakes sprouted, and he became the first snake farmer in the village.
In the first year, due to lack of experience and technology, Yang Hongchang bought 4,000 snake eggs, and finally only hatched 1,000 small snakes, losing more than 10,000 yuan - that is more than 10,000 yuan in 1983.
Many people in the village advised him that this snake was wild and that the family could not raise it well, but he did not accept defeat.
The following year, he consulted experts and explored various materials to finally simulate an environment suitable for snakes. Confident, he purchased 40,000 snake eggs at one time, hatched more than 37,000 small snakes, and earned 140,000 in one go, becoming the richest man in the village!
But the richest man deserves it not easily.
When he first raised snakes, Yang Dechang would be bitten dozens or even hundreds of times a day. The most thrilling one was when he was squeezing the venom for the five-step snake, when the snake's head suddenly twisted and bit him on the hand. "I immediately took a knife and cut two holes in my hand to bleed, then rushed with water, and then called a car to go to the hospital in Hangzhou to get serum."
At that time, I couldn't sleep soundly, and from time to time snakes escaped. When I woke up one night, I "suddenly felt a chill on my belly, and I immediately knew that a snake had climbed up." He fixed his eyes on it, still a poisonous snake, "I was too frightened to move, and it took a while before I swam away." ”
Although there are risks, the income from raising snakes still makes the villagers moved, and they have come to ask for advice, and Yang Hongchang has no reservations.
At its peak, more than 85% of the villagers in the village are raising snakes, which is quite spectacular.
Gradually, there were fewer and fewer chickens, ducks, pigs and dogs in the village, and the sound of snakes was everywhere, which was eerie, and it was said that thieves did not dare to come.
However, relying on boldness alone, Zisiqiao Village is not enough to become the first snake village in China.
A snake farmer said: "20 years ago, I earned 350,000 yuan and could only live a life." But in the past ten years, the annual income has been more than 500,000. ”
Income soaring is a common phenomenon in Zisiqiao Village.
Even smaller farmers can now earn more than 100,000 yuan a year.
Behind this, it is because Zisiqiao Village has been upgrading its industry.
From the simplest snake breeding and selling snakes in the beginning, the snake farmers in Zisiqiao Village have explored many ways to improve the added value of snake products.
Snake cake is the most common product. After the villagers killed the snakes, they spread them on the side of the road or in the yard to dry snake cakes, which can be seen everywhere in the village, and the scene is very spectacular.
After killing snakes, snake heads, snake skins, and snake bones can be sold for money, and even the internal organs are not wasted. Needless to say, the fat oil on the snake intestine is also a good thing, and it is the main material of the best emollient product.
Also well known as snake products are snake wine. A pot of snake wine sold for seven or eight thousand yuan, And Yang Hongchang actually said: "It is not expensive, you can drink it for a year, you can brew it three times." ”
However, the most profitable is snake venom. One gram of ordinary snake venom is worth seventy or eighty yuan, and precious snake venom is even thousands of yuan a gram.
Of course, raising poisonous snakes and taking poison is not an easy task, in order to take poison safely and efficiently, there are special poison collectors in the village, who are really cruel people.
Before taking the snake venom, change into rain boots, put on gloves, enter the snake pool alone to catch the snake, push it, and grab dozens of poisonous snakes at once and put them into the bag.
When taking the poison, use long forceps to clip the snake out of the bag one by one, and then hold the snake's head in your hand, put it on the edge of the cup and pinch it, you can squeeze out the snake venom.
In addition to selling snake products to the outside world, Zisiqiao Village has even developed tourism.
Come here to travel, the degree of excitement is no less than high-altitude walking, bungee jumping and other Internet celebrity projects.
Putting a snake on your hand or neck is just the basic experience.
You can also stand next to the staff and watch the snake venom up close. More than 300 poisonous snakes, half an hour after taking, watching the poisonous snakes have no backhand, it feels quite wonderful.
If you are more stimulated, you can also go into the pool to catch snakes and experience the life of snake farmers.
After the experience of these projects, most people will reduce their fear of snakes, and some tourists have caught snakes and said, "Snakes are also quite cute." ”
If you don't want to have close contact with snakes, you can also keep a distance to watch all kinds of snakes, including cobras, king cobras, bamboo leaf greens, pit vipers, five-step snakes and other venomous snakes, no different from visiting a zoo.
Or, go to the Snake Culture Museum and learn about snakes.
The most interesting thing is that the snake village hatches the snake eggs, first lays sand indoors, then buries the snake eggs in the soil, and waters the snake eggs every day, just like planting crops.
As the snake fetus matures, the egg will grow larger every day, and finally the small snake will break the egg.
Walking down this circle, interested tourists can also go to the village shop to buy a variety of snake products.
You can also sit on the ground and make money without leaving home, which is the first snake village.
Today, 70% of the global snake breeding industry comes from China, and in China, Zisiqiao Village accounts for nearly 30%.
The snake products of Zisiqiao Village are also exported to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, and the breeding technology has also been exported to South Korea, helping Korea to design and establish a standard version of the breeding pond with an area of 10,000 square meters.
However, raising snakes is not only hard, but also risky, and many young people are reluctant to keep snakes.
Zisiqiao Village has dropped from almost every household raising snakes to 30% or 40%.
Despite this, the development of Zisiqiao Village has not stopped, and the income of the whole village by the snake industry is nearly 100 million yuan every year.
The key lies in the second generation of snake farmers, on the basis of the previous generation of people to keep pace with the times, burst out of many new ideas.
For example, product and technology upgrades.
The fetal snake series products are the heavyweight products in recent years.
Fetal snake refers to a newly hatched small snake, which has a higher medicinal value than an adult snake and is more expensive.
But in the past, most of the fetal snakes were only dried to make snake cakes or used to make wine, but now a new generation of snake farmers have developed new product forms, such as fetal snake capsules.
In order to make fetal snake capsules and maintain the nutrient content of fetal snakes to the greatest extent, snake farmers have also established cooperative relations with scientific research institutions such as Zhejiang University and Jinan University, and have developed ultra-low temperature deep processing technology together.
In addition to the snakes used for medicinal or health care, Zisiqiao Village now also breeds pet snakes and ornamental snakes.
These snakes have high appearance and docile temperament, and an ordinary pet snake can sell for hundreds of yuan, which is dozens of times the price of previous medicinal snakes.
As for precious breeds, such as the white snake, one sells for between 10,000 and 100,000!
Like the previous generation, young snake farmers are not only willing to work hard, but also willing to work hard, which is why Zisiqiao Village is still the first snake village in China.
From poor villages to wealthy villages, the residents of Zisiqiao Village have experienced many setbacks, probably only they know in their hearts.
Heaven helps the self-helpers, those who are willing to open up the way for themselves, will inevitably have no way out.
Do you want to visit Snake Village?