A Street Vendor from Shanhe’s Four Provinces: Turning a Ruined Factory Into a University

The night the gaokao results came out, I saw “Ranked 500,000+ across the four provinces along the mountains and rivers” on my score report, and my family pushed me into a mechanical engineering program.

After ten wasted years, I died suddenly at 35 in my rented apartment.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the night before choosing my university preferences. At the dinner table, my aunt was urging me, “A junior college is great. You can start earning money sooner.”

I stared at her greasy lips. “No. I’m going to build Shanhe University.”

The whole family burst out laughing.

A month later, I joined forces with a computer genius who had been rejected by a 211 university, and we drew up plans in an old factory.

Six months later, we used the money we made from a score-checking system to build a campus website.

Seven years later, graduates of Shanhe University swept the top three spots in a global technology competition.

When the provincial education assessment team walked through the gates, they exclaimed, “Your equipment is all obsolete?”

The lab, converted from the boiler room, presented them with a patent that would change the world. “Yes, but the students aren’t.”