By Jin Yuhan

At a recent roundtable titled "Telling the Story of Chinese Modernization to the World," held in Beijing and co-hosted by the Zhejiang International Communication Center and the Foreign Languages Press, Jin Lishen addressed the audience in a crisp tailored suit. "Hello everyone, I'm an ordinary farmer from Andong Town in Ningbo's Qianwan New District, and also the head of the local A-Li Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative," he began.

Jin, 54, was not only the sole representative from Ningbo at the forum but also the only participant from Zhejiang's agricultural sector.

Among the other speakers was David W. Ferguson, Honorary English Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Languages Press and author of China's Development in the New Era: The Zhejiang Experience, which chronicles the province's development through the lens of a foreigner. Jin is one of the featured individuals in the book.

His story spans more than three decades. A native of Andong, a town once known for its salt pans and cotton fields, Jin grew up witnessing his fellow villagers struggling to cultivate cotton on saline-alkali soils, often with little financial return. "I watched people work so hard for so little," he recalled. "That's when I knew I had to find another path."

In the late 1980s, he took his first step by selling surplus grapes from his hometown in the city. By the late 1990s, he began growing a larger variety of produce: broccoli, soybeans, and more. In 2011, he started exporting pre-processed produce to Japan, Europe, and the United States. "It helped solve the problem of surplus," he said, "and created jobs for people in my hometown."

Today, Jin's A-Li Cooperative has grown into a significant enterprise, active in agricultural production, storage, processing, and sales. The cooperative now supports over 1,000 farming households, collectively managing approximately 667 hectares of farmland in the surrounding area.

At the close of the event, Jin extended a heartfelt invitation to Ferguson: "There are countless people like me across Zhejiang's rural areas," he said, "I hope you will continue to explore this vibrant land and discover more stories of hardworking farmers like us."