Journey Through the White Mountains and Black Waters

In the winter of 1980, heavy snow sealed off the Changbai Mountains. When Li Qingshan opened his eyes, he had become a poor young man in a remote ravine in Northeast China, whose father had just died. His house was bare, and he owed 300 yuan. In an era when pork cost 95 fen a jin, that was three years of hard-earned wages for the whole family. The creditor left him with an ultimatum: pay within three days, or lose the land and the house.

In his previous life, he had been an orphan and an expert at wilderness survival. In this life, he remembered that his ancestors had been the last generation of professional hunters in Qingshan Ravine. With nowhere else to turn, Li Qingshan dug out the oilcloth bundle his grandfather had left behind: an old rifle, a few rusty traps, and a copy of The Baishan Hunting Record.

On the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, before dawn, he and Zhao Tiezhu, a hunter’s son, ventured into the old-growth forest. Snow reached their knees, and wolves howled nearby as they set snares among the red pines. By evening, the ropes began to sway. A deep-purple sable struggled in the trap. Its pelt could fetch eighty yuan in the county seat. It was the start of hope.

From sable pelts to wild ginseng, from buying local produce to building processing plants, Li Qingshan kept pace with the pulse of reform and opening up, building his own business empire amid the mountains and rivers of Northeast China. He was ruthless and decisive with his enemies, yielding not an inch in the cutthroat business world. But he gave everything to his family and fiercely protected those he loved.

This is a story about a man and the mountains, and a legend about an era and the people who lived through it. From 300 yuan in debt to assets worth tens of billions, Li Qingshan used a hunter’s instincts and a businessman’s mind to forge a path to success in 1980s Northeast China, a path marked by both bloodshed and warmth.