A new “Portrait from the Road” features Liu Tianquan, who has started a bed-manufacturing business. Liu, who speaks English with a Bangladeshi accent because he used to work there, says:
“I never wanted to be a farmer. When I was growing up, I always thought that I wanted to go elsewhere. When I was 17, I went to Shenzhen and got a job in a bicycle factory doing quality control.
“Then I went to Bangladesh and worked in a bicycle factory exporting electric bikes to India. … Then I moved to Vietnam. I worked abroad for eight years. But it’s difficult to care for my family from there. My children, my wife and my parents were here. So it was very hard.
“I came back to China last year. The local government offered me favorable policies, like no taxes for the first three years. All the local governments around here have a green light for entrepreneurs, and they want investment.”
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N THE WEB EDITION
The Sichuan Diaries: A China Journey
Follow along and interact with Tribune foreign correspondent Evan Osnos as he ventures across China’s vast heartland: chicagotribune.com/chinajourney
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