Wildlife Lover He Qiaonyu

2018-03-13

Special Focus 2018年2期

A Stunning Donation

At the beginning of 2018, a post on The Ellen Show’s Instagram account stunned netizens from all over the world. It announced that a Chinese billionaire has donated 1.5 billion US dollars (a third of her assets) to save endangered animals.

It was the biggest figure committed by a single donor ever for the conservation of endangered species including snow leopard in China, jaguars in Latin America, tigers in Asia, and many others.

He Qiaonyu, the donor, is a Chinese entrepreneur and the founder of the Beijing Oriental Landscape and Ecology Co.Ltd. Her donation for wildlife conservation was made in October of 2017, and attracted the attention of people all over the world.

Her Childhood in the Countryside

According to Bloomberg, “The number isn’t the only thing that’s surprising about the announcement. The source might equally raise eyebrows:The donation isn’t coming from a known Western conservationist like Paul Allen, but from a landscape planner-turnedenvironmental steward who’s based in Beijing.”

Madame He, a heroine by many Western media outlets, was born in a rural village in Wuyi County of Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province in the year 1966. During her childhood, she lived in a small house less than 30 square meters with six family members,and a sow and some piglets that they raised. In the summer, she walked barefoot until she received a pair of sandals as a gift for her 10th birthday. The only time eggs would appear on their dining table was when a new semester began.

Later, her father started a small company buying and selling seedlings, which sparked her love of plants. Under the influence of her father, she chose to study at Beijing Forestry University and obtained her bachelor’s degree in 1988.

Business in Landscape Gardening

After graduation, she worked at the Forestry Bureau of Hangzhou.There she discovered business opportunities in the horticultural market.

A visit to a bonsai exhibition in Beijing a few years later inspired her to start her own business selling the miniature trees from Japan.

“Everyone I met was fond of plants and flowers. But there was definitely a lack of greenery in people’s living and working spaces at the time,” she recalls.

外媒点赞何巧女

世界网友的惊叹

2018年初，美国热门脱口秀节目《艾伦秀》转发的一条视频消息，让各国网友惊叹不已。它讲的是一名中国女性，捐出15亿美元（她财产的三分之一），拯救濒危动物。

这是有史以来数额最大的，针对野生动物保护的个人慈善项目捐献。那些濒危动物包括中国雪豹、亚洲虎、拉丁美洲豹……

而这位令人钦佩的女性，就是中国的女企业家、东方园林创始人何巧女。她巨额捐助野生动物保护项目，其实是去年10月的事，外媒作了大量报道。

女英雄的农村生活

彭博社的消息称，令人感到意外的不仅是捐款数额，它并不来源于保罗·艾伦这类西方知名的环保主义者，而是来自北京一位以景观设计起家的女士，也让外国人感到惊讶。

这样一位被外国人视作女英雄般的人物，1966年出生于浙江金华武义县的农村，她小时候，家中7个人住在一间不足30平方米的房子里，养着一头母猪和几头小猪；夏天赤脚走路，10岁的生日礼物是一双凉鞋；一年只有开学时才吃得上鸡蛋。

后来，她父亲开办一家倒腾花草树木的小公司，她由此与花草结缘。受父亲影响，她去北京林业大学读本科，于1988年毕业。

景观市场的商机

毕业后，她留在杭州林业局工作。一次偶然的机会让她发现盆栽市场的商机。

几年后，她到北京参加一场盆景展览会，那次经历促使她自己也开一家卖日本微型盆景的公司。

“平时跟我聊天的所有人都很喜欢植物，喜欢花草树木。但是那时候，人们的居家生活和办公环境里几乎没有绿植身影。”她说。

她从不同渠道大量买进苗木盆景，租给或售给北京的五星级酒店和写字楼，赚到人生的第一桶金。

Later she bought a large number of bonsai from different channels,and landscaped a string of fivestar hotels, office buildings, and the homes of wealthy individuals in Beijing, from which she made her first million.

In 1992, Madame He established the Beijing Oriental Garden Art company with a goal of building 100 beautiful art gardens in 100 cities in China.

Inspiration from Female Leaders

Throughout her years of business,she has experienced fraud, deceits,and failures in investment.

Her initial business hit a setback when a manager ran off with company cash, and then she made an investment in iron ore that failed. However, she never gave in. In 1994, she started doing landscaping and gardening for foreigners in Beijing’s suburban villas.

When she felt that she could no longer persist, she would read biographies of great women in history, such as Deng Yingchao and Soong Ching-ling. She did this to learn from them, and, most importantly, to get encouragement from them in face of the difficulties.

T o d a y, h e r c o m p a n y i s responsible for many of the large urban landscape gardening projects in China, including the Beijing T3 Terminal, Beijing Canal Culture Square, and Jinji Lake (literally Golden Chicken Lake) in Suzhou.

A Charity Foundation

“At the very beginning, our dream was to build 100 beautiful parks in 100 cities in China,” said Madame He. However, along the way, she became more concerned about the polluted water systems and deteriorating urban ecology.

In 2012, Madame He initiated the Beijing Qiaonyu Foundation to embark on tackling environmental problems that are threatening the world.

She believes that philanthropy is the most important part of wealth inheritance. The Rockefeller foundation was the key for his family to carry on philanthropic tradition for more than a century.She said, “Charity is not something you need to wait to do when you become rich and successful. You can do it right now.”

“You feel successful when your business grows big. But it’s like mountain climbing, when you reach a point, you’ll find a more mountainous challenge beyond and want to conquer it as well.” It’s not just a matter of money, but a matter of time.◆

(Source: China Daily )