Miaoxi B&B for post-90s girls: living in seclusion and looking for another life

China Well-off Network Exclusive Article

The mountains are rolling, the trees are lush, the peach blossoms are blooming, and the lake is vast. Rather than saying that Miaoxi is a B&B, it is more like a spiritual habitat away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a half-day of leisure.

Pastoral life Walking dogs, reindeer, picking tea, making wine, digging bamboo shoots, looking through Xiao Yin’s circle of friends always gives people the feeling of living a fairy life in Xisai Mountain.

"In front of Xisai Mountain, egrets fly, peach blossoms flow and mandarin fish fat. Green bamboo hats, green coir raincoats, no need to return in the slanting wind and drizzle."

Xiao Yin, a post-90s girl Miaoxi B&B is located in the Xisai Mountain Tourist Resort in Huzhou, which is described in the "Fishermen's Song" that has been recited through the ages. The mountains are rolling, the trees are lush, the peach blossoms are blooming, and the lake is vast. Rather than saying it is a B&B, it is more like a spiritual habitat away from the hustle and bustle of the city, where you can steal a half-day of leisure.

Here, Xiaoyin is exploring another possibility of life.

Keep your homesickness at bay and show your filial piety

Xiao Yin, whose real name is Wang Ying, is from Longshan Village, Miaoxi Town, Wuxing District, Huzhou City. After the reform and opening up, there was a huge demand for construction and development in East China, including Shanghai, and the quarrying industry in Huzhou gradually prospered. At one time, there were dozens of large and small quarry sites. Miaoxi Town at the foot of Xisai Mountain was also one of these quarry sites. One of the gathering places. "Ear Ting Pao, Mud Sand Road, Miao West Road". Due to long-term mining, the local mountains are scarred and dusty all year round. "The sky was all gray at that time." For this reason, Xiaoyin has been longing for the high-rise buildings and the exquisite life of white-collar workers in the city since he was a child, so he joined a securities company after graduating from college and stayed in the city.

In the blink of an eye, several years have passed. He has a stable income, owns a house and a car, and lives a comfortable and enviable life. However, deep down in Xiaoyin's heart, she always felt that her life was too dull. However, at that time, Xiaoyin did not want to resign and return to his hometown to start a business, until one day in 2017, the village party secretary visited.

Xiaoyin’s hometown, Miaoxi Town, is located southwest of the center of Huzhou, covering an area of ??106 square kilometers. It is known as “seven mountains, two waters, and one farmland”. Xisai Mountain Tourist Resort Located in the core area of ??Miaoxi Town, it is the first provincial-level tourism and vacation platform in Wuxing District. At that time, Wuxing District was vigorously promoting the construction of a tourist resort, and the village party secretary’s visit was precisely to recruit talents for the development of B&Bs and tourism in the village.

Mines are closed, trees are planted, tea gardens are restored to green, and Miaoxi's "green" is turned into gold, and high-end and high-quality projects are implemented here one after another. In addition, Miaoxi is strategically located at the golden intersection of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. Xiao Yin judged, "This place is going to be developed, and B&Bs can be built."

"My parents are old, and I can spend more time with them while returning to my hometown to start a business." After several months of careful consideration, Xiaoyin finally made up his mind.

However, when Xiao Yin finally decided to start a business, he found that the difficulties were beyond imagination. The first difficulty I faced was my parents’ lack of understanding. “My parents didn’t support it at the time. Firstly, in their view, as a girl, she had a stable job and good income, so there was no need to worry too much. Secondly, they didn’t know much about homestays at that time, and no one in the village had done it, so they were worried about it. It’s not easy to lose money.”

Putting the facts into perspective, Xiao Yin made a calculation for his parents: the B&B will be renovated using an old house in his village, and it is estimated that he and his two partners will need to invest 3 million. "The worst result is equivalent to replacing my house in the city with a house in the village. I have comprehensive securities qualifications, and I will have to start all over again."

Opening a B&B is not easy. In recent years, the reason why B&Bs have gradually been accepted by people is because of their warmth and feelings. The temperature and feelings here largely depend on the life attitude, pursuits and stories of the B&B owner.

Although he is not from an academic background, Xiao Yin has his own requirements for the entire B&B concept - to retain the appearance of the old house as much as possible and integrate it with the surrounding environment. From placing furniture to painting the walls, from the small embellishments of bricks and tiles to the large partition layout, after two years of careful polishing with a professional design team, in October 2019, the B&B was completed and officially opened for business.

Xiaoyin’s B&B is surrounded by mountain streams and backed by bamboo mountains. It has its own aura under the green color, so it is named Miaoxi. The entire building is built against the mountain. The white building with simple geometric lines and the undulating curves of the ridge conform to the space and terrain. The natural mountain and sloping roofs are staggered and arranged, echoing the mountains, giving people a sense of natural beauty and appearing exceptionally harmonious and unified.

Pushing open the courtyard door, you will see another world. What comes into view is a cute food truck lawn worthy of checking in and taking photos, and an extra-long Internet celebrity slide. Along the slope, there is a beautiful infinity swimming pool, with mountain spring water from deep in the bamboo forest, lined with white sand, always giving the illusion of being at the seaside.

There are surprises hidden in every corner of Miaoxi. The first floor is the public area. In addition to slides, lawns, and swimming pools, there are also bookstores, teahouses, and children's play spaces. The second and third floors are guest rooms, including Yueling, Shuzhu, Chasing Dusk, and Chengwu... All rooms are named after the scenery they see, which is quite poetic. The restaurant on the fourth floor is Xiaoyin’s proud work. In order to reshape the concept of double-eaves architecture, Xiaoyin specially built a 720-meter surrounding glass curtain wall in the starry sky restaurant on the top floor with a wide view. This ingenious design concept always allows guests to feel the infinite beauty of nature at all times.

"The beauty of architecture is not only an appreciation from an artistic perspective, but also a yearning for a life attitude." Although the entire B&B investment greatly exceeded the budget, Xiaoyin felt that it was well worth the money. "B&B, in the final analysis, is an expression of nostalgia and feelings. It is the stream where children played in front of the door, and the chestnut tree visible through the window in the back mountain..."

Moving forward is happiness

Walking dogs, reindeer, picking tea, making wine, digging bamboo shoots, browsing Xiao Yin’s circle of friends always gives people the feeling of living a fairy life in Xisai Mountain. However, the "fairy sister" also has her own hardships and sadness.

Get up at 7:30 in the morning; 8:00~10:00 is breakfast time and serve in the restaurant; after 10:00 is the check-out time for guests, and guests must be sent off and off; starting in the afternoon Welcome guests; 15:00~17:00 is the most suitable time for taking photos, collecting materials, taking photos, and recording videos; then it is dinner time, and the restaurant waiters are online again; after the meal is the time to communicate with guests. After everything is over, when you return to your room, you have to sort out the day's work, plan the next day's work, or edit videos and make marketing plans... In Miaoxi, Xiao Yinying wears many hats, including an operator, a waiter, and a receptionist. ,guide.

"In the past few years, when I was a B&B, I focused on telling stories, but now I focus on service and experience." To this end, Xiaoyin's pace of learning has never stopped, including tea art, flower arrangement, photography, and video editing. , recently, she has just unlocked a new skill in making coffee.

In addition, fully exploring local culture and continuing to develop new ways of playing are also indispensable tasks for Xiaoyin to operate a B&B. Check in to the country's first giraffe interactive manor, ride on the cycling path built in a nearby mountain village, enjoy flowers in the thousand-acre plum garden in the original hometown, and have a picnic in the tea mountain. Xiao Yin is the most competent experience officer of local leisure projects. "Being a B&B is by no means as simple as providing a bed. There are many things we need to do, and we basically don't have any time of our own."

Compared with being busy, what is more unbearable It's a "natural disaster". Less than three months after Miaoxi officially opened for business, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out and there was no revenue for two or three months. The partners could no longer hold on and decided to withdraw their capital. The heavy burden fell on Xiao Yin alone. However, this was not her most difficult time. "The epidemic broke out in early 2020, and Wuxing resumed work in March. Tourism consumption grew retaliatory. Our occupancy rate that year remained above 80%, and our revenue was actually very good."

The most difficult thing is right now. The epidemic has spread in many places in the country, and the epidemic situation in Shanghai and Jiangsu, Miaoxi's main source of customers, is particularly severe. According to Xiaoyin, since the beginning of the new year, Miaoxi has not been able to operate normally for more than three months. "According to epidemic prevention and control "We are still unable to receive guests from outside Huzhou City."

However, Xiao Yin's mentality is very good, "I am not waiting for death. The more difficult the time, the more I accumulate, accumulate, and plan." It’s a good time.”

The country cafe at the entrance of the village is one of Xiaoyin’s priorities during this period. The village collectively set up the land, and the Xiaoyin team is responsible for the operation. “In the future, we plan to put some free B&B skills training for villagers here.

”

The neighbor’s old house across from Miaoxi has become Xiaoyin’s new battlefield. This is the second phase of Miaoxi, which was jointly built by Miaoxi, the village collective and the villagers. Xiaoyin planned With the establishment of a dedicated agricultural product display and sales center here, "Currently, the village is branding local specialty agricultural products, and we will also participate in it and do some live broadcast work." ”

What makes Xiaoyin even more happy is that through her introduction and matchmaking, more and more people have come to Miaoxi Town: a tea-making friend has opened a tea-making studio in the village, making My coffee friend became the manager of the village cafe, and a big B&B business owner also joined the team of mentors for B&B training in the village. Even my neighbor’s brother returned from the city to the village and started barbecue camping. Xiao Yin felt a full sense of accomplishment.

When he was asked if he had any regrets when he started his business, he gave this answer: “Although it is difficult, it is. I have also gained a lot from starting a business. When solving various problems, I can clearly feel that my abilities are growing and moving forward. ”

Moving forward, this is Xiaoyin’s greatest happiness since returning to his hometown to start a business.

(Exclusive article of "Xiaokang"·China Xiaokang.com)

This article was published in the early May 2022 issue of "Xiaokang"