Published by ChinaMNC · Shangcheng

Hangzhou's Fuyang District Builds 17 Youth Entrepreneurship Stations to Draw Talent to Rural Businesses

Fuyang District in Hangzhou has launched 17 youth entrepreneurship stations and a 21-point policy package to attract young people to rural areas. The stations offer one-stop services including talent recruitment, business incubation, and training. Since 2025, they have brought 335 young people into rural areas and cultivated thousands of new farmers and rural innovators, providing a model for foreign founders seeking to tap China's rural opportunities.

Fuyang's Youth Entrepreneurship Stations: A Model for Rural Business

For foreign founders considering rural operations in China, Hangzhou's Fuyang District offers a compelling case study. The district has established 17 youth entrepreneurship stations that provide a range of support services, from talent recruitment to business incubation. These stations are part of a broader effort to revitalize rural areas by attracting young talent.

Policy Support and Results

In July last year, Fuyang introduced a 21-point policy package titled "Gathering Talent in Fuchun, Creating the Future in Rural Innovation" to support youth development in rural areas. The policy covers seven areas: employment and entrepreneurship, talent cultivation, enterprise talent recruitment, high-level talent introduction, platform construction, participation in rural operations, and housing security. According to official figures, since 2025, the stations have attracted 335 young people to rural areas and cultivated 7,160 new farmers, 328 rural innovators, and 12 rural operation professionals.

Each station offers a "1+N" service model. The "1" refers to talent recruitment, while the "N" encompasses one-stop integrated services such as employment guidance, entrepreneurship incubation, skills training, policy consultation, and living support. This structure aims to address the concerns of young people moving to rural areas and provide a platform for them to start businesses.

Case Study: Fuyang Fushen Agricultural Technology

At Hangzhou Fushen Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd., a provincial-level standardized crop straw collection and storage center, straw is processed into feed. The station has established partnerships with Zhejiang University and the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences to create a national shared farmer field school, a provincial postdoctoral workstation, and a municipal doctoral innovation station. A provincial science and technology vice president, Dr. Gu Fengfei, leads a team that adjusts feed formulas based on straw nutritional content and beef cattle growth stages. The station also implements six institutional rules, including free lunch, commuting subsidies, youth growth records, and a "Spark Award" of 2,000 yuan for the top 10% in annual assessments, with priority given to recommended employment and entrepreneurial resources.

Interns from Harbin University work at the station, directing scheduling screens to coordinate harvesting and transportation. One intern from Zhejiang University noted that she not only accessed cutting-edge straw utilization technology but also worked on research projects with experts like Changjiang Scholars, contributing to agricultural waste resource utilization.

Case Study: BinFu Biotechnology

At Hangzhou Binfu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., located in the Luzhu Town Circular Economy Industrial Park, a team led by station head Yang Zhuli, comprising mostly post-95s, operates a black soldier fly breeding workshop. The workshop is fully intelligent and "unmanned," converting nearly a quarter of the district's kitchen waste into insect protein daily, producing four to five tons of fresh insects and six tons of insect manure organic fertilizer per day. Like Fushen Agriculture, BinFu Biotechnology uses research platforms to attract young people, industrial chains to retain them, and wealth-sharing mechanisms to spread results.

Case Study: Smart Agriculture and Tea Exports

In a 100-mu planting base, smart greenhouses regulate temperature, humidity, light, and carbon dioxide concentrations in real time. The greenhouses enable bayberry to reach market 15 days earlier and achieve "zero pesticide and no growth promoter" cultivation. The "graduate student bayberry" has won gold awards at the first Yangtze River Delta Premium Bayberry Competition and the Provincial Agricultural Expo. The farm employs over 50 villagers, forming an employment chain that involves elderly field management, young live-streaming operations, and mothers packing and shipping. Offline, it partners with towns in the Huyuanxi River basin to offer a one-day tour combining bayberry picking, farm meals, and visiting Longlin Dam.

At Minglv Longfu Ecological Agriculture (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. in Folu Village, Xukou Town, station head Zhu Huamin emphasizes the importance of understanding the entire tea production process. A team led by post-95 returnee Xie Xinnan designed a tea gift called "Foling Longdan" that incorporates Fuchun landscape elements and has entered the high-end Japanese market.

Case Study: E-commerce and Live Streaming

Liang Xin, who signed a contract earlier this year as a rural collective economy manager for Hongzhuang Village in Yinhu Subdistrict, has been working to boost e-commerce in the village. He spent two months researching local products and discussed with village secretary Ma Guorong the need for real, authentic live streaming rather than AI-driven approaches. On March 27, the first public training session on "E-commerce Empowerment for Common Prosperity" enrolled 38 villagers, 18 of whom created accounts and 12 started live streaming. A cross-subdistrict grape rescue effort saw 20,000 kilograms of grapes sold through live streaming and offline channels after an original order fell through. The village's unused health clinic will be converted into a village broadcasting academy next year, where trained villagers can recommend local products, earning hourly wages of 20 or 25 yuan per order.

Case Study: Animal Health and Smart Equipment

Zhejiang Haizheng Animal Health Products Co., Ltd. saw its pet business revenue grow by over 50% year-on-year in the first three quarters. Since March, 60 people have joined the station, and four interns chose to stay after graduation. Station head Wang Linchao explained that the company integrates a sense of value into the industry chain: young technicians provide technical services at large, remote farms, not working alone in isolated areas.

At Hangzhou Saidlin Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., a national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise, young mechanical designers work on vegetable precision seeding lines. The company's smart seedling equipment is exported, and its vegetable drum-type high-speed seeding technology is the only one in China. In September, youth-developed intensive and efficient seedling equipment was showcased at the 11th APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting Technical Achievement Exhibition. The station has signed school-enterprise cooperation agreements with three agricultural machinery colleges, attracting 10 young people and driving employment and income growth for over 30 surrounding households by more than 1.7 million yuan.

Conclusion

Fuyang's approach can be summed up simply: make rural areas places with work, income, and growth opportunities, and young people will come and want to stay. For foreign founders, this model illustrates how local policies and station-based services can support rural ventures, offering a template for navigating China's rural business environment.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.