In the “Taiwan Agricultural Park” in Dapu County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, Taiwanese compatriot He Mincai is packing fresh grapefruits and oranges that have just been picked from the orchard. These carefully cultivated fruits are about to be sold throughout the country.
72 year old He Mincai has dark skin, wearing faded jeans and mud stained release shoes. The canvas tool bag hanging from his waist is filled with various farming tools for building fruit trees. It’s hard to imagine that he, who is now a senior fruit farmer, was once a well-known traveler and travel columnist in Taiwan, with rich travel experience. Thirty years ago, a chance experience of returning home made this Taiwanese tourism industry “red star” determined to transform into a Meizhou fruit farmer.
Recently, journalists from Nandu and N Video interviewed a Taiwanese compatriot who “hid” in Meizhou County to grow fruits. They listened to his story about how he brought Taiwanese agricultural technology back to his ancestral home in Dapu County, Meizhou City, many years ago to fulfill his father’s last wish and help promote the development of agriculture in his hometown. He Mincai told reporters from Nandu that in the future, he also hopes to turn the orchard into a base specifically for providing training and learning services to the surrounding villages, and to exchange and share with farmers, “working together to develop agriculture in Dapu well
Taiwanese veteran traveler returning home
In Taiwan, He Mincai was once a “celebrity” in the tourism industry.
He, who graduated with a major in travel, used to be the “leader” of a travel agency in Taipei, leading countless Taiwanese tourists to visit and check-in around the world, providing services such as tour guides and accommodation bookings for tourists. In order to provide tourists with a better travel experience, He Mincai would consult local information in advance, recite a large number of historical stories, and intersperse anecdotes in his explanations, which received unanimous praise from tourists.
After accumulating funds and experience, He Mincai opened a travel agency in Taiwan and became his own boss. He told the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter that even during the period of running a travel agency, he did not stop traveling. By visiting over 130 countries and regions and learning from their tourism industry experiences, He Mincai successfully introduced the concept of “homestay” learned from countries such as Switzerland and Japan to Taiwan, driving the development of the local homestay industry.
In addition to running a travel agency, He Mincai is also a travel writer who translates his travel experiences from various places into words and provides articles for well-known Taiwanese media such as China Times News. In his travel column, He Mincai not only popularizes the cultural customs of different countries for Taiwanese people, but also introduces various precautions for traveling abroad. He, who holds multiple positions including Executive Director of the Taiwan Tourism Union, Tourism Consultant of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, and Consultant for the Civil Code Tourism Chapter of the Taiwan Ministry of Justice, has witnessed the prosperous development of Taiwan’s tourism industry along the way.
However, the experience of being entrusted by his father to return to his ancestral home in Meizhou, mainland China, completely changed the life trajectory of this Taiwanese tourism industry “celebrity”.
Thirty years ago, He Mincai returned to his hometown Meizhou for the first time from Taipei, and after a long journey, he arrived at his father’s birthplace – Shuangkeng Village, Huliao Township, Dapu County.
This traveler who travels around the world is instantly deeply attracted by this small mountain city with infinite natural scenery in front of him. The clear streams, winding mountains, and unique Hakka architecture all left a deep impression on this first-time returnee. In his eyes, the simple Dapu is a tourism “virgin land” waiting to be developed.
With rich travel experience and unique tourism planning vision, around 2002, He Mincai utilized his resources in Taiwan and collaborated with multiple travel agencies to organize Taiwanese people to visit Dapu. Under his guidance, batches of Taiwanese tourists crossed the strait to Dapu, admiring the local Hakka Tulou and tasting authentic traditional cuisine among the green mountains and trees.
He Mincai told a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily that about 20 years ago, he led nearly a thousand Taiwanese tourists to visit Dapu almost every year. Many Taiwanese tourists who have visited Dapu have left a good impression of this place, and the exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have also deepened through each trip. “Many Taiwanese tourists came to Meizhou only to discover that there is also Hakka culture here, and they were amazed that the cultures on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are indeed of the same origin and continuous transmission
Transforming Fruit Farmers’ Bringing Technology Home ‘
My father often said ‘agriculture is the foundation’, and in order to develop my hometown Dapu well, we need to further enhance the local agricultural development, “He Mincai told a reporter from Nandu. He has always been interested in the field of plant cultivation and has met some experts in Taiwan’s agricultural field before, learning a lot of agricultural and forestry knowledge.
With the idea of bringing “Taiwanese agricultural technology back to Dapu”, around 2008, He Mincai withdrew from the Taiwanese tourism industry and officially moved from Taipei to Houbei Village, Baihou Town, Dapu County, willingly becoming a “farmer”. In the past few years, he has continuously invested 15 million yuan to establish a nearly 1000 acre “Taiwan Agricultural Park” in Dapu County.
Dapu has a unique climate and land conditions, especially suitable for the growth of pomelos. Many fruit farmers make a living by growing pomelos, and the local area also enjoys the reputation of being the “hometown of honey pomelos”. He Mincai adapted to local conditions and specifically invited agricultural experts from Taiwan to cultivate a unique variety of pomelo in his orchard – the red fleshed honey pomelo.
Wearing a faded shirt and mud stained jeans, with a canvas tool bag stuffed with farming tools hanging from his waist, He Mincai was always busy in the orchard. He personally does all the agricultural work, including pulling grass, pruning branches, picking fruits, and fertilizing. In his opinion, the original intention of returning home to establish an orchard and developing tourism in Dapu is complementary. Leisure orchards are one of the carriers of the leisure tourism industry, “he said.” The purpose of establishing the ‘Taiwan Agricultural Park’ is to turn orchards and other areas into leisure resorts
This nearly thousand acre agricultural park is filled with the shadow of Taiwan’s fine agricultural management. He Mincai told reporters from Nandu that the park has hired 5 permanent employees to help him manage the orchard together. He planted over 300 loquat trees, each of which underwent pruning and pruning to ensure that the loquat trees not only fully absorb sunlight, but also facilitate management and harvesting; In order to ensure the quality of pomelos, he harvested pomelos that had reached a uniform maturity in batches, resulting in a high fruit hanging rate among over 10000 red fleshed pomelos; Automatic watering pipes and nozzles have been installed in the park, which not only saves labor but also enables scientific watering.
The fruits cultivated through meticulous management are favored by fruit wholesalers in many parts of the country due to their sweet and slightly sour taste, thick and juicy flesh. He Mincai introduced that when he was engaged in the tourism industry, he led agricultural experts to investigate the exquisite agricultural models in Israel and Japan, went to Germany to study advanced agricultural tools, and went to the United States to learn fruit preservation technology and “biological bacteria” technology. Now, he is happy to apply these techniques and concepts to practice, and the fruit yield and taste of the orchard have been significantly improved.
Nowadays, He Mincai’s orchard has successfully cultivated nearly 20 kinds of fruits. He also consulted agricultural experts and opened experimental fields in his own orchard, planning to cultivate more new varieties in the future.
Assist in the development of agriculture in our hometown
His previous experience in the tourism industry has made He Mincai very good at talking and having excellent explanatory skills. In recent years, while studying, he has invited fruit farmers from surrounding towns to visit and learn from the orchard, generously sharing his mastery of agricultural fine management skills with local fruit farmers.
Win win cooperation is the secret to orchard development that He Min has only come to understand. He told Southern Metropolis Daily reporters that a few years ago, a local beekeeper in Meizhou approached him and asked him to help promote honey.
The beekeeper told me that soaking the loquat I grew at home in his own honey has the effects of moistening the lungs, relieving cough, resolving phlegm, clearing the stomach, diuresis and clearing heat, and is particularly useful for treating stubborn cough. I tried buying honey from his house and it worked very well. Now, He Mincai’s orchard also specializes in selling homemade loquat honey, with good reputation and sales.
In 2021, in order to help more Taiwanese companies like He Mincai participate in the high-quality development of agriculture and forestry and rural revitalization in mainland China, relevant departments such as the Taiwan Affairs Office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs proposed the “22 Measures for Agriculture and Forestry” for the use of farmland and forest land, financing convenience and financial support, investment and operation, research and development innovation, and development of domestic markets involved in the development of Taiwan companies in the field of agriculture and forestry. The Guangdong Provincial Taiwan Affairs Office and other relevant departments have also formulated and issued the “Guangdong Taiwan Agriculture and Forestry 34 Articles” to encourage and support Taiwanese enterprises in Guangdong and Taiwan to conduct research and development, innovation, and high-quality development in the field of agriculture and forestry.
In He Mincai’s view, these policies have effectively helped many larger Taiwanese enterprises in terms of funding subsidies, financing loans, and alleviating land difficulties, giving confidence to Taiwanese compatriots engaged in agriculture and forestry industries to develop in mainland China. He hopes that in the future, relevant departments can continue to provide assistance to some small enterprises and individual farmers, continue to develop leisure tourism and leisure agriculture in Dapu, and drive the farmers in Dapu to become prosperous.
In He Mincai’s plan, the orchard will transform into a base dedicated to providing training and learning services for the surrounding village residents, passing on his years of accumulated agricultural knowledge to local farmers. Not only can fruit farmers come together to exchange planting skills, but farmers who are willing to engage in planting work can also come to learn about fruit cultivation knowledge.
He told Southern Metropolis Daily reporters that in the future, the orchard will also provide free melon and fruit seedlings and fertilizers to farmers, allowing them to cultivate scientifically and “develop agriculture in Dapu together
Produced by: Nandu Instant
Reporter Yang Lingyan from Southern Metropolis Daily
