China News Service, Changde, Hunan, October 29th. Title: Fishermen quit fishing and switch to other industries, and young people return to their hometowns to start businesses. "Hanshou Turtle" activates Dongting countryside
Author Zhang Xueying
In Potou Village, Hanshou County, Changde City, Hunan Province, Xiao Nianfa, a 63-year-old retired fisherman, opened the back door of his house and saw a neat ecological breeding pond.
"In the past, we were exposed to wind and rain on Dongting Lake, and it took us more than half a month once we were out of the boat; now the pond is at the doorstep of our house, we can take care of it by raising our feet, and the income is stable." Xiao Nianfa said in a recent interview with China News Service.
As a Dongting fisherman who has relied on the water for generations, Xiao Nianfa has been drifting on a boat for more than 20 years. When the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River was first implemented, he was once worried about his livelihood. In 2020, with the technical training and industrial support from the local government, Xiao Nianfa rented an 8-acre pond behind his house and turned it into soft-shell turtle breeding, earning a stable income of about 50,000 yuan (RMB, the same below) every year.
On October 27, the soft-shell turtle ecological breeding pond is located in Hanshou County, Changde City, Hunan Province. Photo by Zhang Xueying
Hanshou County is located on the west coast of Dongting Lake, with vast waters and selenium-rich soil and water under its jurisdiction. It is the "Hometown of China's Turtles". In the 1970s, Hanshou technician You Hongtao relied on his own artificial breeding technology to deliver a large number of fresh turtles to the Dutch royal family for entertaining distinguished guests from various countries. Hanshou turtles have since entered the international stage.
Over the past 50 years, Hanshou soft-shell turtle has been iterated from sporadic free-range farming to standardized ecological farming, and has also spawned a group of industry leaders who have contributed to the common prosperity of neighbors. In the 1990s, Hanshou villager Su Yougui started from a few small ponds, gradually built a large-scale breeding base, and took the lead in establishing a cooperative to attract surrounding farmers to work together for development.
Today, her cooperative has not only led more than 400 farmers to participate in breeding, but has also opened up sales channels in Southeast Asia, bringing Hanshou soft-shell turtle to the dining tables of more overseas consumers.
"Hanshou soft-shelled turtles have thick skirts, firm meat, and are rich in selenium and high in umami amino acids." Su Yougui said that relying on the "one turtle, one code, one core" full life cycle traceability system, turtles that have traveled across the ocean are equipped with exclusive "digital ID cards". By scanning the code, you can view complete data from seedling hatching, adult turtle breeding to market testing.
On October 12, workers were fishing for soft-shell turtles at the soft-shell turtle ecological breeding base in Hanshou County, Changde City, Hunan Province. (Photo provided by interviewee)
In recent years, Hanshou has built a whole industry chain of "seedling breeding - ecological breeding - intensive processing - online and offline sales - cultural and tourism integration". Hanshou's official statistics show that as of the end of 2025, the county's standardized turtle breeding area is 190,000 acres, and the output value of the entire industry chain has exceeded 10.8 billion yuan; it has gathered 4,185 breeding business entities of various types, directly driving the employment and income of 54,000 people, and the three core indicators of breeding scale, product output, and industrial output value have firmly ranked first at the county level in China.
The booming industry has also attracted many young talents to return home. In 2016, Hanshou was selected as a national comprehensive demonstration county for e-commerce to enter rural areas. Liu Wen, who has been working abroad for many years, saw the industrial potential of his hometown and returned to his hometown to enter the rural e-commerce track.
"At that time, there was almost no online turtle brand, but consumer demand in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou was very strong." Liu Wen said that in order to quickly open up the market, the team provided turtle products to major restaurants, while also providing services such as cooking methods and cultural displays.
With refined services, Liu Wen's team has sold Hanshou turtles to more than 2,000 catering stores in China, with annual sales of nearly 70 million yuan, driving more than 200 local farmers to steadily increase their incomes. He plans to develop turtle deep processing and cultural tourism souvenir products, and work with industry peers to strengthen the regional public brand of "Hanshou Turtle".
