Huang Rong [Women of China]     

Huang Rong is a native of Chaijiawan, a village in Xiabaoping, a town in Yiling, a district in Yichang, a city in Central China's Hubei Province. In 1996, her family moved from Chaijiawan to the downtown area of Yiling. As she watched her parents struggle to run a small tea shop, Huang, who was then 10, made up her mind to work hard to become a successful businesswoman, so her parents could live better lives. She also hoped the villagers would escape poverty.

Every day, Huang spent nearly an hour walking to her primary school. As a result, she was both mentally and physically stronger than her contemporaries.

In 2004, Huang was admitted to Wuhan (capital of Hubei Province) Sports University, after she passed the university-entrance examination. She participated in various school activities, during which many teachers and schoolmates were impressed by her excellent communication and organization skills.

Huang gave up the "golden" opportunity to teach at the school in 2008, after she graduated from the university. Within a short time, she returned home and took over her mother's store.

Huang noticed many plants of Gastrodia elata Blume (tianma, a traditional Chinese medicine often used to treat headaches, convulsions, hypertension and other diseases) had turned rotten in the fields of her village. Recognizing the potential business opportunity, Huang decided to use her store to help the villagers sell the plants. Most of the villagers thought Huang's idea was incredible, when she told them about her plan.

Huang didn't waste time displaying her business talent. A few months later, she rented a  small stall to sell tianma during the 2008 Wuhan Agricultural Products' Fair. To her pleasant surprise, she sold dozens of bundles of the plants on the first day of the fair.  She bought more than 5,000 kilograms of high-quality tianma from Yichang, and had the products transported to the fair overnight. She used, the following day, the trick of a package deal — each customer who bought 0.5 kilogram of the plants could get, for free, a jar of chicken soup with tianma. Within three days, Huang earned about 100,000 yuan (US $14,925). After the event, many of the villagers looked at the "saucy miss" with new eyes, and they believed Huang was good at doing business.

In 2009, Huang established Shibawan Agricultural Products Cooperative, in Yiling. She will never forget how bitter she felt when she learned all of the tianma (on her motorcycle), which she collected from farmers on a hot summer day that year, were ruined. Suffering from fatigue and sunstroke, Huang fainted as she rode her motorcycle home.

In 2010, Yichang's food-supervision department named Nongfu Xiangqing (which literally means "farmer's affection for their home villages") Agricultural Products, developed by Huang and her employees, pollution-free products. During the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the products attracted numerous visitors from around the world.

Huang  at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo [Women of China]     

As the saying goes, "God helps those who help themselves." Huang's persevering efforts (of promoting the sales of agricultural products across the country) eventually yielded handsome rewards. Her company generated more than five million yuan (US $746,269) in revenues in 2010.

Given her outstanding achievements, Huang during the past few years has received accolades and special titles, including Outstanding Rural Entrepreneurs in China, Hubei's Outstanding Rural Talent and Yichang's March 8th Red-banner Holder.

To help rural residents sell agricultural products online, Huang established Yichang Shibawan E-commerce Co., Ltd. in March 2015.

Huang and a local farmer [Women of China]     

When Huang learned poverty-stricken families, in mountainous areas in Yichang, kept a lot of raisin trees' fruits eight months later, she immediately led her employees in visiting the families. Within a short time, Huang and her employees posted the fruits' photos and ads online. The fruits sold well in several of China's largest cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing. The farmers, who earned a considerable profit from the fruits, showered praise on Huang.

Within two years, Shibawan generated 128 million yuan (US $19. 1 million) in annual revenue. The company helped Yichang's farmers sell 31,150 tons, combined, of agricultural products, which were worth more than 80 million yuan (US $11.94 million).

During the final of the 2015 Hubei Rural Youths' E-commerce Entrepreneurship Competition, which was held in Hong'an (a  county in  Hubei Province) in December 2015, Shibawan earned Huang the championship of the Growing Group (of Enterprises). Huang was overjoyed when she heard the news. "I feel that all of my painstaking efforts of developing my business are worthwhile," she was quoted as saying.

In addition to selling agricultural production materials offline, Shibawan offers, online, "tailor-made" chemical fertilizer to farmers.

Huang vows to work harder to improve rural residents' lives, and to develop Shibawan into the largest e-commerce platform in Hubei Province.