Chapter 38 Chapter 7 What a Big Sky

Chinese immigration experts discovered a very unique phenomenon when studying contemporary immigrant groups. According to the general law, immigrants always flow from the marginal areas to the Central Plains, from the poor areas to the prosperous areas, and from the war-torn areas to the safe areas.However, there is such a group of people who go in the opposite direction.Their starting point is the economically developed southeast coast, and their destination is the relatively impoverished Three North regions and the mountainous areas in the south-central and southwest regions. They all spoke difficult dialects and often traveled in groups.They are relatively short in stature, with clear eyebrows and amiable attitudes, and they can afford the worst suffering in the world.In the eyes of some locals, they are often confused with beggars and the like.But when they briskly leave that place, they may be hiding in the soles of their shoes the money that locals earn in a year or two.

They are Zhejiang farmers. They are now called "Zhejiang ethnic group" by researchers. Zhu Youdi, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency, is a well-known "geological expert" inside and outside the agency. He travels in the northwest with the China Geological Survey Brigade all the year round.He is from Huangyan, Zhejiang, and the following is his "Adventures from Hometown": It was spring one year, in the Alecha region of Xinjiang, we went to an extremely remote small county on the edge of the desert.It is said to be a county, but in fact the county seat is just a 100-meter-long dirt street, where more than forty families of Kazakh herdsmen live.However, here I met a Huangyan fellow in his early forties.

He was carrying a pair of loads, one end was shoe mending utensils, and the other end was mirrors, toothpaste, lighters and other small grocery items. I even tried it, and it was heavy.He told me that since the beginning of spring, he has been carrying this burden, stepping on the newly melted snow, chasing the Kazakh tribe on horseback to move eastward and westward.The riding boots worn by herdsmen are made of cowhide, which are easy to wear out when they touch the snow on the ground. This is his chance to make money.In those days, he just chased around like this, living in no fixed place.When he washed his feet, he took off his socks, and his feet were covered with blood blisters.

As far as I know, among nomadic peoples such as Kazakhs, Kirgiz, and Uzbeks, many people have always despised business and disdain to associate with businessmen.They spend the whole year leisurely on horseback, thinking that "good people don't do business".It can be imagined from this that my fellow villager is in a difficult situation.He asked if I could deliver a letter to his family after returning to Beijing, and I agreed. The next day, I got up to see him, but the bed was already empty. Early in the morning, the herdsmen set off early, and he followed. To be honest, after so many years, I have always missed this one-sided fellow.Such a scene often emerges in front of my eyes: a southerner carrying a burden, dragging a pair of bloody feet, chasing a Kazakh herdsman on horseback.

Let's talk about the natural conditions of that place.No matter how tall the grass grows there, it is only a third of the size of the little finger. The young sheep in the south of the Yangtze River usually grow up after three years of raising, but it takes at least seven to eight years there.If the sheep in the south of the Yangtze River were raised there, Tim Tim would starve to death if he couldn't do the grass. However, it is surprising that people can live. The first county at the source of the Yellow River... Maduo County, Qinghai Province. Summer is here, and the plateau is green.

Mo Xiaolin stood on the stone road he was familiar with, and greeted acquaintances from time to time: "Here we go again, we have the newest thermos cups, which are used by city cadres, come and buy them." Like a migratory bird, Mo Xiaolin has been doing business in this remote town every summer for three years. "In the beginning, two fellow villagers and I arrived first, to see if the business was going well, and as soon as we greeted, more people came." "There are too many people, are you afraid of grabbing business?" "It's a joke, the business can't be done well. One person yells quietly. If there are many people, it will become a momentum, and it will become a market. Just kidding, even if you fight, you need a few helpers."

So, in this small county, there are dental inlay shops of Zhejiang people first, then photographers, radio repairers, clothing, small commodities, electrical appliances... Now, a seasonal commercial street has been formed. "In the past, herdsmen had to travel 1,000 kilometers to Xining to get a tooth, but now they can do it at their doorstep. In the past, a few girls have seen such fashionable skirts, and now they can wear whatever the heroines on TV wear. " A reporter from Zhejiang returned from an interview on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.He said that there was a small grocery store next to a military depot on the farthest plateau. He went in and asked, and it was opened by a Yueqing couple; It’s Zhejiang leather dealers like locusts; a deputy mayor of Shanghai said at the National Business Exchange Conference that there is a Beijing East Road in Shanghai, which has the most small and medium electrical stores. In recent years, Wenzhou people have eaten them one by one , now, it has become a street of Wenzhou electric appliances; a friendly delegation went to the Burmese stockade near the Yunnan border for exchanges, and found that the silk there was very cheap, so they bought a large bag of them, but during the bargaining, they found that the other party was A native of Huzhou, Zhejiang.The dealers are also very strange. They have been doing business here for more than two months, but they feel that the money they have received is colorful and unfamiliar. It turns out that they have gone abroad to Myanmar.

In the Hexi Corridor, in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, in Hainan Island, in the Northeast Plain, in the islands, deserts, grasslands, frontiers, stations, ravines, streets, and alleys... Countless figures in a hurry have drawn a very strange footprint on the territory of China. Wire. Where there is a road, go; where there is no road, go.As long as there is a place where cooking smoke rises, there must be business, and people from Zhejiang can be found. 1. There is no accurate statistics on how many Zhejiang farmers live and sleep on China's 9.6 million square kilometers of land. Some said 2 million, some said 3 million, and some said 4 million, but even according to Sheng's conservative statement, at least one of the 15 Zhejiang farmers is such a "migratory bird".

They are obviously different from the blind flow or wage earners who rely purely on their strength, and their flow has a certain direction.Before the early 1980s, they were mainly craftsmen, such as people from Yongjia who plucked cotton, people from Xiaoshan who repaired shoes, people from Zhuji who mended socks, people from Yiwu who knocked sugar, people from Jinhua who repaired glasses, and people from Wenzhou who cut hair. , Yongkang people who mend pots, and Jiaxing people who make brown beds.After that, they mainly sold small commodities, most of which came from township enterprises and professional markets in their hometowns.

For a time, Zhejiang merchants attacking everywhere caused commotion in the business circles across the country. One year, the China Light Industry Federation received "complaints" from some cities, saying that the price of woolen sweaters across the country had been "monopolized" by a group of Zhejiang farmers.The General Assembly then sent experts to various places for unannounced visits. If you don't visit, you don't know. The current market situation has surprised the experts. It turns out that about half of the woolen sweater counters in large and medium-sized shopping malls in major cities in China have been leased or contracted by traders in northern Zhejiang.In Puyuan, Tongxiang, the largest woolen sweater market in the country, there are 5,000 farmers who are away all year round, controlling the counters in various places.

Their every move and repetition are enough to make the market fluctuate. The experts found that to drive these traders out of the mall, first, it was easier said than done, second, it was impossible to start, and third, it was not necessary. Obviously, woolen sweaters are not the only trump card for Zhejiang people. According to data, at present, in all major and medium-sized shopping malls across the country, 10,000 vendors from the Qiaotou Button Market occupy 7,000 button counters, more than 20,000 Wenzhou people occupy more than 10,000 leather shoe counters, and 5,000 Ningbo people from left and right occupy more than 100 shirt counters. In addition, in front of the counters of suits, children's clothes, leather clothes, etc., there are all the shadows of Zhejiang people. People have seen that in those various "the largest professional markets in the country" In addition, there are tens of thousands of vendors running around the country, infiltrating various sales channels, either retail, monopoly, or wholesale.In fact, they have become an "economic kite" drawn by a long line over the Chinese economy by the professional market in Zhejiang. It is also this kind of flying and traction that makes the Zhejiang market always in an invincible position.