How many people in their late 40s could give up a decent and well-paid job at a local bureau to start a new business? Veteran Lu Xianrong, located in Changshui village of Jiangxi province, is one of the few who have.
Retired from the army in 2018, Lu passed up a job opportunity arranged through preferential policies for soldiers, and decided to start a restaurant and homestay business after discussions with family.
"My family was very supportive. We saw big opportunities from local vernment's promotion of nature-based tourism, so we were very optimistic about the industry's future and wanted to ride the wave," Lu said.
"We started planning the business in 2019 with two of my brothers and a sister. We invested over 1 million into it. The local vernment helped us with the exterior decoration," Lu said.
Lu started running the restaurant and homestay business in April.
"It has ne well so far. On normal days there are about 50 people eating in our restaurant per day. During the May Day holiday there were 100 customers eating per day on average," Lu said.
"We earn about 50,000 to 60,000 yuan per month and the number is still increasing," Lu added.
Lu said the success of his restaurant and homestay business has relied heavily on the local vernment's promotion of nature-based tourism.
Since 2004, the vernment in Changshui has rolled out a series of measures to protect the environment, including investing about 50 million yuan ($7.25 million) to renovate public restrooms, parking lots and many other forms of infrastructure.
"It was a different landscape before 2004. You could barely see trees in the village or surrounding areas, but only bushes and shrubs because local villagers bet on cutting trees and selling them to make a living," said Yu Diewen, an official with Changshui village.
Lu's family was among the first group of people to answer the vernment's call for environmental protection. "A od environment can bring us much more than money from cutting trees and will benefit multiple generations," Lu said.
