一位晚辈看望童锦泉时曾问过，如今不读书，还能像他一样成功吗？童锦泉思考良久，回答道：“今天的中国，创业氛围不一样了。但是什么都能变，勤奋和坚持的精神不能变。”
披荆斩棘，归来依旧是少年。他的梦，正在更大的版图上实现。（张泽民对此文也有贡献）
Tong’s Dream: Longemont Paradise
After passing through the Longemont Tunnel, a new cultural tourism city appears. Hotels, ancient towns, the zoo, the conference center, the wetland park, etc., are spread along Bianshan Mountain to the shore of South Taihu Lake. With 28,000 guest rooms, 70,000 performance seats, 30,000 parking spaces, and a 300,000-square-meter banquet and conference hall, Taihu Longemont Paradise is unique in China and even in the world.
Across the market, many investors appear “hesitant”, but Tong Jinquan, the founder of Longemont and chairman of Shanghai Changfeng Group, has done the opposite: in this year, he has invested more than one billion yuan ($137 million) in Changxing county, Huzhou city and new projects like Happy World, Ice and Snow World, and pension apartments were started on a large scale. He assured others that he would go to Liuchunhu Mountain in Quzhou city to build a new paradise.
2022年国庆期间，太湖龙之梦乐园万名游客大合唱，以歌声祝福共和国生日。龙之梦/供图
Looking down from the 28th floor of the Longemont Diamond hotel, Tong Jinquan watched vehicles passing through the tunnel. Although it was a weekday, there was a constant flow of passengers. “I only say ‘dare’,” No matter what difficulties Tong encountered, by opening a road in mountains and building bridges over water, he always had the door of opportunity, and there is a turning point in the trough. At this moment, the changes in a century and the pandemic of the century are intertwined, and the recovery of the world economy is shaky. “Development or recession?” Facing the question, Tong, who has been so determined in his own business for 55 years, is planning a new kickoff. The resilience of the Chinese economy has convinced him that the golden age of mass tourism is coming. Tong, who never sticks to the rules, does not back down even this time.
Tong Jinquan has the following saying as his own motto: “Honesty and self-confidence are the foundation of success.” Changing lanes into the cultural tourism industry, his show-up twice is confidence itself, even high-profile. In 2015, he announced that he would build a tourist city in Changxing, the scale of which would be comparable to Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Then this year, in 2022, he decided to jointly develop the Liuchunhu project with the Quzhou Municipal Government, with a total investment of about nine billion yuan. Such a large amount of money attracted the attention of the market as soon as the news was released. At the beginning, everyone was curious: Who is Tong Jinquan? To this day, the question has evolved into: How will he keep on?
Who is Tong Jinquan? A dreamer determined to create a national cultural and tourism brand, and a low-key and simple entrepreneur. His most recent public appearance was at the curtain-calling ceremony of the premiere of the big circus: under the brilliant spotlights, the gray-haired Tong was in an old T-shirt, revealing a corner of a white vest, and one of his trouser pocket was turned inside out. He raised his hands over his shoulders and bowed from the stage to three sides, like a peasant respectfully facing the land.
Tong Jinquan said frankly that his Longemont plan was not impulsive. He considered various risks, and even thought of the recurrence of the SARS crisis in 2003, and made proper preparations for this. He set a rule: all investment will come from his own savings instead of bank loans. To a certain extent, this helped Longemont alleviate liquidity difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 12, after staying in Longyou county, Quzhou city for two hours, and then visiting the top of Liuchunhu for five minutes, Tong Jinquan made the decision on the spot. Everyone present was surprised. Xu Jialong, general manager of Longyou County State-owned Assets Company, described his mood as “incredible”: “This is no ordinary investment, but nine billion yuan. What if you fail? “
Even Cheng Rengui, vice chairman of Changxing County People’s Political Consultative Conference and head of Taihu Tuying Tourism Resort, who witnessed the formation of Longemont and is familiar with Tong Jinquan’s character, also widened his eyes, “Old Tong is too bold.” Tong Jinquan knows the difficulty: investing in cultural tourism projects is like a marathon, with high cost, long cycle, painful process and unknown results. In the past three years, travel agencies, hotels, and scenic spots across the country have tried to transform themselves while laying off staff and reducing costs. Longemont also switched between shutdown and restart again and again. At the beginning of 2022, the pandemic broke out in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and the main tourist groups were unable to travel, and the income and consumption expectations became worse. Many tourist cities almost “ran out of food”.
