An Interview With Hsu Feng, A Zhuji Native Of Shaoxing, On The Changes Of New Silk Road

At present, there are nearly 200 members of the Shaoxing chamber of Commerce, and some 2 people in Shaoxing. They are mainly engaged in real estate, building materials, foreign trade, textile, auto parts and environmental protection equipment in Xinjiang.

Before the rise of modern maritime trade,

The road is a great passage for thousands of years of trade and cultural exchanges between China and the West.

Today, the silk road is still an important way of communication between China and the West.

She is still full of business opportunities and full of charm.

Though the ancient camel bell rings, it is long gone with the long shadow of the commercial brigade camel.

And Xinjiang is ancient.

And the golden passageway.

It is understood that today, tens of thousands of businessmen in Xinjiang "gold rush."

What is the experience of the new silk road? What are the experiences and lessons of these pioneers? What business opportunities and risks are there?

Hou Feng: twenty years in Xinjiang

It is hard to say that the local accent is hard to change, and it can be found in the telephone interview with Hou Feng.

This Zhuji Mandarin has a strong Xinjiang accent.

This is the brand left in Xinjiang for more than 20 years.

About half an hour earlier than the time of the visit, the reporter came to a high-rise office building located in the golden section of Urumqi.

Hou Feng's office is located on the 10 floor, standing in Chang Liang's office. He can see the whole people's Park through the French window.

"Zhejiang people have brains, quick service and hard work.

After so many years of secretaries, I have never seen our chairman take a lunch break, and every day's journey is one after another. "

Hou Feng has not come yet, and the reporter chatted with his secretary Xiao Qin.

For the Zhuji people who are unfamiliar with Xinjiang's life and become a manager of an enterprise with an annual turnover of 1 billion, Xinjiang's little Qin is full of admiration.

Chatting, Hou Feng walked into the office quickly. The reporter looked down at the time, and the interview time was not bad.

He was not tall, stocky and steady, with slightly dark skin and thick eyebrow and deep eyebrow.

"Ha ha! Indeed, many people say I look like a minority."

Hou Feng told reporters.

Maybe it's a local affection. Without greeting, the interview will soon enter the state.

In 1991, Hou Feng, 26, started his own business in Xinjiang.

Previously, he was engaged in mechanical and electrical industry in Shanghai. He found business opportunities while traveling to Xinjiang.

When he first arrived in Xinjiang, Hou Feng bought a detailed map of Xinjiang, where there were large iron and steel plants, and they took long distance buses to sell mechanical and electrical products.

The area of Xinjiang is equivalent to 16 Zhejiang provinces, and the long and bumpy journey from one city to another is the vast Gobi and endless skyline.

Loneliness makes a young heart mature quickly.

Hou Feng came out of business and showed his mind of Yue business. He printed his business card for himself.

At that time, it seemed that only big people had business cards.

Finally, in Korla, he got the first order, the contract of 3000 yuan, the profit has 2000 multivariate -- at that time, equivalent to the annual income of an ordinary two employee family in Zhejiang.

Xinjiang is a good place.

He made up his mind to stay and develop.

Hou Feng started the mechanical and electrical trade.

He brought samples from factories in Shanghai and Zhejiang, and in the evening in the dim light of the guest house, he thoroughly learned the performance of each product, and sold them one by one during the day.

{page_break}

When business began to pick up, he suffered a heavy blow.

At that time, in order to get a contract of 250 thousand yuan for an oil company, he paid most of his money to the deposit of the project.

However, at that time, the first round of macroeconomic regulation and control after the opening and reform of the country began.

Hou Feng's deposit was all washed up.

At that time, Hou Feng showed the toughness of Zhejiang businessmen and came back again.

After hard work, the sales market in Xinjiang was opened in 1996.

At that time, Hou Feng was keenly aware of the fact that Xinjiang's tourism began to warm up, and all kinds of five star hotels, Grade A offices and government offices had been built, and these facilities must be equipped with central air conditioning.

He seized the opportunity and immediately switched to the central air conditioning system, providing a one-stop service from design, installation to after sale.

Heating plays an important role in the livelihood of the people in Xinjiang.

He founded the Jin Hao group in Xinjiang, and took up 40% of the HVAC project in Xinjiang.

After the pformation from trade to industry, Hou Feng entered the real estate industry 5 years ago.

Nowadays, Hou Feng is a great celebrity in Xinjiang. He is not only the executive vice president of the Zhejiang chamber of Commerce in Xinjiang, but also the president of Xinjiang Shaoxing chamber of Commerce, and also serves as the deputy to the Urumqi Municipal People's Congress.

In recent days, Hou Fengzheng is busy preparing for the opening of a large restaurant and entertainment agency.

In his words, "this is another attempt to cross industry."

Over the past 20 years, "opening up territory" has changed not only accents, but also his life trajectory.

Hou Feng's business experience in Xinjiang may give more references to Yue merchants who want to take the silk road.

Trade: the opening door of Frontier business

"If you want to know how to do business in Xinjiang, you can go to the border hotel."

During the interview, Hou Feng told reporters.

With this in mind, the reporter made a special trip to the border hotel.

The "Border Hotel" is commonly known as its predecessor, the third guest house of the Xinjiang military region, which was built in 1973. It opened in 1977 and assumed important meetings and various reception tasks in the Xinjiang military region.

Today, the official name is borderland International Trade City, the two level national port. It is also the largest export port in Urumqi.

Because Keqiao International Textile City is a pair of foreign trade bodies, for Shaoxing people, "foreign trade" is no stranger.

However, it was discovered in the border hotels that although foreign trade is all, foreign trade in the border area is different from that in the mainland.

The border hotel is located at 662 Yanan Road, Urumqi. At the entrance of the border Hotel, there are many people holding a stack of RMB.

According to introducing, that is foreign exchange "cattle".

The decoration of some small shops at the entrance of the border hotel is Russian style, and advertisements and signboards are also Russian.

That is, from the door of the border Hotel, the official language of communication has changed to Russian.

The main border trade products of border hotels are clothing, shoes and hats, jeans, fur, knitted goods, general merchandise, hardware, electrical appliances, etc.

Unlike the open door in the mainland, the reporters found that it was "closed" to do business.

Shops have attached great importance to privacy, and every shop has a curtain to do business. After picking up the curtain, it is found that shopkeepers do not seem to welcome visits and inquiries.

On the first floor of the border Hotel, the reporter found a Zhejiang businessman, who runs shoes in Zhejiang, and received a simple interview from reporters outside his shop.

He said that because the sample was plagiarized and the price was covered, businesses here adopted such a way of operation.

He also told reporters that the rent of one of his stores was 210 thousand yuan a year, which is the best shop.

The rental prices in the border hotels range from sixty thousand or seventy thousand to about 200000 yuan.

"I have just come to Xinjiang to do business, I feel that profits are OK, but the risk of payment is very, very large."

This is the Zhejiang businessmen's biggest impression of border trade.

The European and American markets have always been the main export areas of Zhejiang. After the financial crisis,

The shrinkage of orders has brought some adverse effects to Shaoxing's foreign trade enterprises. Many enterprises have begun to expand emerging markets such as Central Asia and the Middle East, while Xinjiang is the bridgehead leading to emerging markets.

For Shaoxing, which has the advantage of foreign trade, entering the western region is also an important springboard to enter the markets of Central Asia, East Asia and South Asia.

Through this springboard, Yue merchants can fully explore this part of the market, customize products on demand, and find more advantageous element resources there.

At present,

There are nearly 200 members of the chamber of Commerce, and there are about 2 people in Shaoxing. They are mainly engaged in real estate, building materials, foreign trade, textile, auto parts and environmental protection equipment in Xinjiang.

Starting from the 80s of last century, Yue business's business footprint in Xinjiang is mostly similar: through the completion of primitive accumulation through trade, various crises and opportunities have been encountered, macroeconomic regulation and control, policy introduction, and market reputation.

Every opportunity and crisis has led to the pformation of Vietnam businessmen. The Vietnamese businessmen in Xinjiang are also expanding in the process of adjustment and pformation.

{page_break}

New Silk Road: new proposition of Yue Shang

More than a month ago, Shaoxing hosted the Vietnam business conference. Hou Feng rushed in.

For the Vietnamese businessman who has been in Xinjiang for more than 20 years, thinking more about returning home is how to better connect his hometown with his second hometown. This is also a proposition that many businessmen in the Xinjiang and Vietnam even think about.

"Every time I leave Xinjiang, I miss the food there, and the food there is very practical.

After every business trip, the first thing to do is to eat a dish and pull a bar (a kind of Xinjiang pasta).

Hou Feng, who has regarded Xinjiang as the second home, said that for Vietnam businessmen, the return is not only a return of factories and a return of funds, but also a good use of two markets and two resources to achieve convergence and mutual development.

Xinjiang is rich in resources, oil reserves account for 30% of the country, natural gas accounts for 34%, coal accounts for 40%, and a large amount of non-ferrous metals such as copper, gold, iron ore and so on.

As a small resource province, Zhejiang is short of land, energy and other factor resources, and Vietnam's business pformation should conform to the direction of industrial restructuring.

Xinjiang's industrial electricity price is 0.38 yuan / kWh, the price of Zhejiang is above 1 yuan / kWh, and many Zhejiang textile enterprises can rely on Xinjiang's abundant cotton resources to set up cotton processing enterprises. "Raw materials base and rough processing base are located in Xinjiang, product development, brand building and services are put in Zhejiang, enterprises themselves develop, and local economy in both places has also been developed, which is actually a return."

A Zhejiang businessman sees the return as the advantage of the two places.

At the same time, we must not ignore the obvious regional advantages of Xinjiang.

Xinjiang borders on 8 countries in Central Asia, and the border trade market can not be underestimated. Xinjiang is a bridgehead to the West.

"To grasp the pulse of policy and grasp the opportunity of development is the most important factor in investment and construction in Xinjiang. We need to understand politics and understand local conditions."

Hou Feng said.

In the 80s of last century, the Vietnamese businessmen who came to Xinjiang mostly came to the west to work hard after the reform and opening up. They started from scratch, "sleeping in the daytime as the boss, sleeping in the floor at night", earning hard money one by one, and completing the initial primitive accumulation of the grassroots economy.

After 2005, Zhejiang merchants, including Vietnam merchants, entered the tide of Xinjiang, and more people invested and developed with a large amount of capital and technology.

But not every businessman who goes on the silk road can return to his own home. Some people bring back lessons and lessons.

In the past two years, with the support of Zhejiang and Xinjiang Akesu, the investment boom of Zhejiang businessmen in Xinjiang has been raised again, and opportunities and challenges coexist.

"The Shaoxing chamber of Commerce in Xinjiang welcomes Yue businessmen to come to Xinjiang, and is willing to provide assistance to Yue merchants in Xinjiang to exchange information and share networks."

Hou Feng said.

The ancient Silk Road has historically crossed the Eurasian trade and pportation line, and has promoted the friendly exchanges between Eurasian countries and China.

Its opening has effectively promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.

Today, the silk road is still an important way of communication between China and the West.

She is still full of business opportunities, full of charm, waiting for Vietnam to explore.

Though the ancient camel bell rings, it is long gone with the long shadow of the commercial brigade camel.