Lei Huaying's Story: The Blue Phoenix Takes Flight Across Mountains and Seas

Once a laid-off worker from a state-owned enterprise during the restructuring wave, she has worked various jobs, from street vending to running a restaurant. Yet, she soared in the face of adversity. She brought the eggs of her Miao village to international tables, leading 28,000 villagers out of poverty in ten years. Under the name "Blue Phoenix," she has brought the citrus fruits, kiwifruits, and various vegetables of Hunan's Miao region across mountains and seas, becoming a shining example of rural revitalization. She is Lei Huaying, a national role model, recipient of the National May 1st Medal for Women, head of a national poverty alleviation demonstration base, and chairwoman of Mayang Blue Phoenix Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. With resilience and wisdom, she has written a magnificent epic of rural revitalization.

Layoff, Entrepreneurship, and a New Path: The Blue Phoenix Takes Flight from the Miao Region

In 2009, 31-year-old Lei Huaying was laid off due to state-owned enterprise restructuring, plunging her life into despair. However, the resilience inherent in this Miao daughter prevented her from surrendering to fate. She traveled to Beijing, Guangzhou, and Guizhou, selling clothes from street stalls, running restaurants, and managing hotels, accumulating her "first pot of gold" in four years. Although her itinerant life was arduous, the green mountains and waters of her hometown and the simple smiles of her fellow villagers always lingered in her heart. In 2013, she resolutely returned home, investing all her savings and loans in agriculture to establish Mayang Blue Phoenix Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., determined to use a single egg to leverage her hometown's poverty alleviation efforts.

The initial passion of entrepreneurship soon encountered the harsh realities. In June 2014, a major rainstorm triggered a landslide, and a mudslide instantly swallowed up the chicken coops, burying more than 5,000 laying hens, resulting in losses exceeding 2 million yuan. Standing before the ruins, Lei Huaying's tears flowed uncontrollably: "At that moment, my dreams were shattered." But the emergency assistance from the local party committee and government and the spontaneous support from her fellow villagers rekindled her fighting spirit. Villagers rushed to the scene with hoes and carrying poles to clear the debris; experts from the agricultural and rural affairs bureau conducted geological surveys overnight; and teams working on road hardening and water and electricity installation arrived within three days. Looking at the mud-covered villagers, she gritted her teeth and vowed: "On the road to entrepreneurship, difficulties are like flash floods, but belief is the dam that never collapses!"

With this belief, Lei Huaying embarked on a second entrepreneurial journey. She introduced a fully automated German production line and built a modern farm with a capacity of 900,000 birds. The chicken coops have precise temperature and ventilation control systems; the laying hens drink water from a 168-meter-deep well and eat scientifically formulated feed; and the eggs are directly transported to the sorting workshop via conveyor belts, without ever touching the ground. Leveraging the ecological advantages of Mayang, the "World Longevity Village," the "Blue Phoenix" and "Mama Liang" brand eggs have won the Hunan Provincial Famous Trademark and the Central China Agricultural Expo Gold Award. Of the 500,000 eggs produced daily, two-thirds are sold to the Hong Kong market, becoming a star product and making a positive contribution to the "vegetable basket" project of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The once humble village eggs have flown out of the Miao Ridge mountains.

Enriching Villagers, Paving a Path to Shared Prosperity

As soon as the business showed signs of improvement, Lei Huaying set her sights further afield. "The wealth of one person is small wealth; the wealth of thousands is true wealth." She adhered to a "entrusted assistance" model, where impoverished households invest in the company using small loans and industrial support funds, enjoying dual protection of "guaranteed dividends + priority employment." From 23 pilot households in 2014, the program now covers 8,300 households in 18 townships across the county, with a total dividend distribution of 20.8 million yuan, resulting in an average annual increase in household income of over 3,000 yuan. Yin Xiufu's family in Lancun Township, through work and dividends, saw their annual income jump from less than 10,000 yuan to 89,000 yuan, allowing them to build a three-story house and send their daughter to university.

In the Blue Phoenix workshop, heartwarming details are everywhere. Disabled employee Teng Mingqian receives 4,000 yuan in dividends annually, plus an additional 2,000 yuan in hardship allowance. Xia Yuanmei, a stay-at-home woman who lost three fingers on her right hand due to a work injury, is assigned to light packaging work, earning a stable monthly salary of 3,000 yuan. "Money is confidence; it allows our sisters to stand tall, and their families can stand firm." Lei Huaying often repeats this phrase. During the epidemic, she donated 100,000 yuan in cash and 50,000 eggs to the Red Cross Society, but told her employees: "Enterprises are the cells of society; giving back to our hometown is an instinct."

Her poverty alleviation wisdom lies in "teaching people to fish." In Huangshuangchong Village, Yanmen Town, she invested in the construction of an ecological farming and breeding base, teaching villagers how to raise chickens under trees and grow oranges on slopes. Man Weijun, once a laggard, is now a skilled breeder, praising: "Director Lei taught me that poverty is not hereditary; happiness is earned through hard work!"

While deeply cultivating the egg industry, she set her sights on another "golden business card" of her hometown—Mayang ice sugar oranges. For many years, she led her team to explore the mountains and investigate the soil, introducing experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to develop a 100,000-mu standardized planting base in the depths of the Miao Ridge. From grafting and improvement to variety selection, after thousands of experiments, she finally cultivated new varieties such as "Jinhe" and "Jinmihong," with delicate, seedless flesh and a sugar content as high as 17%, which quickly became popular in the market. In 2023, Mayang ice sugar oranges won the gold award at the Central China Agricultural Expo, and the brand value exceeded 3 billion yuan. Villagers who once worried about selling their oranges now have their pockets bulging by 30% thanks to order-based agriculture, and the laughter in the mountain valleys is even louder.

Changing Thinking, Expanding Markets, Cherishing Hometown and Products, Reaching Across Mountains and Seas

In 2022, at the Sai Wan market in Hong Kong, Lei Huaying carried sample eggs, going from stall to stall, but was repeatedly turned away. The selling points of "27 degrees north latitude longevity village" and "selenium-rich eggs" were ignored until she spent seven consecutive days stationed at the purchasing department of a chain supermarket, repeatedly explaining the geographical advantages of Mayang, the "World Longevity Village," finally securing a trial order of 200,000 yuan. This "key" allowed Blue Phoenix eggs to supply over hundreds of thousands of eggs daily to Hong Kong. She not only brought eggs to foreign markets but also promoted high-quality fruits and vegetables from the Huaihua region to the world. In 2024, foreign trade exports exceeded 1.26 billion yuan, making her the largest agricultural product exporter in Huaihua City. Facing her achievements, her gaze was sharp: "There are no boundaries in the market; agricultural products can cross mountains and seas, relying on the daring and courageous spirit of Xiangxi!"

Riding the momentum of Huaihua International Inland Port, Lei Huaying's vision extends to a wider world. As the only intersection point in central China of the national "Western Land-Sea New Passage" and the "International Inland Port Passage to the Indian Ocean," Huaihua has opened up logistics arteries connecting ASEAN and Europe. Ice sugar oranges and kiwifruit are transported directly to Southeast Asia via the China-Laos Railway, while selenium-rich vegetables travel across the ocean to the Middle East via Beibu Gulf Port. 500 tons of potatoes and onions exported to Laos set a new record for the unit price of imported vegetables; golden pomelos shipped to Thailand were fully booked before even arriving. At the signing ceremony, she emotionally stated, "The international inland port is the wings that allow us to reach out to the world, enabling the high-quality products from the deep mountains to communicate with the world."

Keeping up with the times, she has also opened a new battlefield in the livestreaming world. Dressed in Miao silver ornaments, she skillfully introduces to the camera: "Our confinement eggs contain 12 trace elements, making babies smarter and mothers healthier!" During a single livestream at the agricultural expo, 20 million kilograms of ice sugar oranges were sold. She firmly believes in leveraging new high-tech methods, saying, "Traditional agriculture must also embrace the new wave; the mobile phone is the new farm tool!" Currently, the company continues to promote the export of ice sugar oranges, eggs, and fresh high-quality agricultural products to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Canada, and New Zealand, opening up new horizons for agricultural products from Huaihua to go global.

From a laid-off female worker to a leader in rural revitalization, Lei Huaying has used ten years to interpret the era's symphony of "poverty alleviation" and "rural revitalization." Before the morning mist has cleared, the automated production line of the Lan Phoenix Industrial Park is already in operation, and eggs bearing the phoenix seal are being loaded onto trucks. They will cross the Wuling Mountains, travel through Huaihua International Inland Port, and head to all corners of the world, just as Lei Huaying often says: "Lan Phoenix will not only fly over the Miao Ridge, but also let the world see the vibrant vitality of China's new countryside!"