Li Hao

    TWENTY years ago, he came to Shenzhen and began bicycling several times a day between Guoshang Mansion and Wenjindu Checkpoint in Luohu District, as a customs declarer.

    In 1993, he returned to the city after business setbacks in Hainan Province and restarted his career. Hard work in Shenzhen has since made him a successful businessman in tourism and real estate.

    One of his favorite mottoes is: “People need stimulation.”

    He is Fu Yibin, founder of Parket Group, a large enterprise involved in tourism, real estate and hotels.    

    Uncle’s stimulation

    Born in Yiyang City of Hunan Province, Fu Yibin grew up with parents who were rural teachers.

    “In addition to teaching, my parents had to do farm work to feed me. We lived a simple and poor life. I also had to help with the farm work,” Fu recalled.

    One difficult experience made a lasting impression on him.

    “When I was a teenager, I was hauling wood one night in heavy rain. I walked the whole night with the wood on a handcart and hurt my toenails,” Fu said.

    He decided at that moment to leave the place where he grew up and change his fate.

    So he studied hard and got into Hainan University. After graduating in 1989, he got a job in a foreign trade company in Hainan, which paid him 200 yuan (US$32) a month, good pay in China at the time.

    When he seemed satisfied with his status quo and stopped seeking further development, however, his uncle revived his ambition by showing him half a bottle of XO cognac and pictures of Ocean Park in Hong Kong — examples, his uncle thought, of the good life.

    As a government official in Yiyang, Fu’s uncle frequently visited Hong Kong and met with foreign business people, which made Fu envious.

    “My uncle brought home a half bottle of XO and surprised me, or even shocked me, with its price. Later, he showed me pictures he took in Hong Kong’s Ocean Park, which stimulated me to replan my life,” Fu said.

    In 1992, Fu left Hainan for Shenzhen, the frontier of China’s reform and opening up.

    Fu said that rainy night as a teenager, hauling wood, has often occurred to him throughout his life, reminding him of the helplessness he felt and strengthening his resolve.

    “Each time I thought about giving up, that night would soon drive away the thought,” Fu said.

    He started in Shenzhen as a customs declarer with monthly pay of 430 yuan, more money than in Hainan. But this time, he chose to continue climbing the ladder.

    Fu spotted urgent demands by industrial enterprises and foreign trade companies, and became a foreign trade agent.

    “My good record of credibility got me many customers,” said Fu, who made his first fortune thanks to Shenzhen’s fast development of foreign trade.

    While many people started squandering money after making fortunes in Shenzhen, Fu decided to use his money to do something meaningful and appealing.     

    Persistence

    prevails

    He returned to Hainan and developed a theme park in Qiongshan County, featuring ethnic minorities performing in cultural costumes. The theme park concept, however, was new to Hainan and not yet widely accepted. When Hainan’s real estate bubble burst, Fu lost his fortune.

    With nothing, Fu returned to Shenzhen and gradually recovered his losses by working again as a foreign trade agent.

    Fu established a foreign trade company in Shenzhen in 1997.

    “Tourism, however, was still on my mind,” he said.

    He started seeking chances to develop tourism projects in the country.

    “I wanted to present traditional local cultures through my tourism projects,” Fu said.

    He reorganized his company at the beginning of 2003, focusing on tourism real estate development. Fortune smiled on Fu in 2003, when he signed an agreement with Tongliao City, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to develop Kerqin Prairie.

    Fu integrated elements of leisure, shopping, cultural performance and food in the prairie tourism project, which featured unique Mongolian culture while attracting tourists and benefiting native herdsmen.

    The prairie project’s success soon was followed by successful tourism projects in Hunan and Guangdong.     

    ‘People need

    stimulation’

    Fu strongly believes that “people need stimulation and, more importantly, dreams.”

    “I always tell the newly recruited employees of my company that people have to have their dream, which is more important than their abilities,” Fu said.

    He said the biggest fortune Shenzhen has given him is his persistent pursuit of his dream.

    Fu also has begun contributing to the development of his hometown, Yiyang.

    “My father reminded me not to forget my hometown after my success,” Fu said.

    He started developing a tea-themed resort in Anhua County in Yiyang in 2007. Part of the resort has opened.

    Fu said he is fully aware of peasants’ hardships — such as hauling wood on rainy nights — and feels happy to help them improve their lives, as he did his own.