Former fisherman sees misfortune go out with the tide amid wave of success

The day was breaking when Zhang Mingzhe and his elder brother were boating back home after a night's fishing along the Wusuli River in Heilongjiang province. In the light of dawn, Zhang vaguely saw a large object floating some 200 meters away. Could it be a big fish, a black bear or the legendary water monster? The curious brothers decided to take a look.

Zhang squatted down in the front of the boat and leaned out to see what the object was when he came face to face with a tiger trying to climb in. "We were so close that I could feel his breath. We were almost kissing each other," Zhang recalls the 2014 event.

This certainly was not the time for romance. Zhang leapt back and picked up a long wooden pole with which he pushed the tiger to prevent it from getting in the boat. "Though trembling with fear, I knew I had to stop the tiger from getting in because once he climbed on our 7-meter-long boat, it would be over," Zhang says.

While Zhang tried to stop the tiger with the pole, his elder brother Mingkai steered the boat to make it more difficult for the tiger to board. Their joint efforts paid off with the tiger finally withdrawing his forepaws from the side after a scuffle that lasted a few minutes. But they had hardly sighed in relief when the tiger made another attempt, this time from the other side of the boat.

After a tug-of-war similar to the previous attack and counterattack, the tiger decided to give up his attempt at a free boat ride and swam to the Chinese side of the border river between China and Russia. Realizing they were finally safe, Zhang took out his mobile phone and began filming the swimming tiger while his brother operated the fishing boat at a safe distance from the tiger.

The last clips of Zhang's video show the tiger jumping out of the water and dashing into the forest. The video was later sent to local zoologists and the animal was confirmed to be a Siberian tiger, the world's largest tiger that grows to over 350 kilograms in weight and 2.5 meters in length. The tiger swam across the border river without any proper documents such as a visa.

It is not rare for local fishermen and frontier guards to see black bears swimming across the Wusuli River but it is unheard of for a tiger to accomplish such a feat. Zhang's video helped prove that tigers have such ability, though if they can, they prefer free rides like the one who tried with Zhang's boat.

Constant changes

Zhang's tiger-fighting experience in 2014 made him an instant living legend in his home of Zhuaji village in Wusu township before his story was printed and broadcast by Heilongjiang provincial and, eventually, national media outlets including CCTV. Bombarded by questions from reporters and friends for more tiger-fighting details, Zhang could give but a tight smile. "They may find my experience fascinating but I knew it was just one of the many misfortunes I had experienced and would experience in the future," Zhang says.

Born in 1979, Zhang grew up in a fisherman's family in Fuyuan, a small city in the easternmost part of the country. Zhang's childhood memory is closely connected with fishing on the Wusuli River. "Each time my exhausted father came back from fishing, his harvest was hardly enough to buy us a 25 kg bag of flour, which fed our nine-member family for less than three days," recalls Zhang. He lived with his grandparents, parents and four brothers and sisters — some too old or too young to be labor hands.

Zhang did what he could to help his family after school. In his early teens, he joined his father and elder brothers for fishing — a work full of danger and hardship. "When you are on a small boat floating in high waves under a thunderstorm, it is scary and you feel insignificant against nature. Under such circumstances, only a bottle of baigan (high-proof liquor) can help calm you," Zhang recalls.

"Having experienced the bitter part of life in my childhood, I feel I can survive all difficulties like an iron man," says Zhang with a bitter smile.

But this "iron man" also has a tender heart. Zhang could not help weeping when recalling his decision to quit senior high school in 1997 after only one year of studies in Fuyuan.

He returned to his village to become a fisherman, which he accepted as his destiny.

While fishing on the Wusuli River in 2005 with his colleagues, he was caught and detained by frontier guards on the other side, accused of crossing the border for fishing. His argument of innocence was ignored and he was detained for five days.

The borderline between China and Russia is set as the middle line of the main channel of the Wusuli River. But the river overlaps with vast wetlands and when floods come, it is difficult even for an experienced fisherman to identify where the middle line is.

As a result, unintentional cross-border fishing occurs by boats from both sides.

"Then I knew that bad luck never stopped haunting me," Zhang says.

Fishing season along Wusuli River usually lasts four months each year and during seasons when fishing is banned, fishermen head to other regions to work for more income. Zhang joined the ranks of migrant laborers.

Introduced by a friend, he went to work in a hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2001, not realizing that it would begin his affair with the hospitality industry, which is still ongoing. Between 2001 and 2015, he worked in half a dozen hotels in Zhejiang, Jiangsu province, Shanghai and Beijing. Starting from a primary bellboy, he worked his way up to positions including lobby manager, service manager and logistics manager in star-rated hotels. He could climb further up the hotel business ladder if he didn't have to quit often to join his brothers when each fishing season began.

With his help, new houses were bought for his parents and elder brothers who were happily married. Encouraged by his career success, Zhang began to consider starting his own business.

It was in August 2015 — soon after his tiger battle — that a cousin came to him and successfully persuaded him to join in launching a restaurant in Langfang of Hebei province. Zhang invested his remaining savings into the restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant went bankrupt within just a few months. "That's when I realized my bad luck had never gone far," Zhang sighs.

Turn of fate

With the little money he got from transferring the restaurant, he returned to his hometown and opened a small fish shop in his village in 2016. Business was fine during the fishing season but in other seasons, there was hardly any profit. It was then that an advertisement on a lamp post near his store caught his attention. A property management company responsible for providing water and heating for the town and village wanted to employ a few local hands.

Zhang decided to give it a try. Reading over his resume for a few minutes, the interviewer raised his head, gazed at him for a few seconds and said: "Can you start tomorrow?" "I guess my hotel working experience impressed him," Zhang says.

His experience certainly came into play. Within months, Zhang found himself being entrusted by the company to manage its whole operation in the town. Three years later, when the property management was handed over to Harbin Electric Corporation, a State-owned enterprise, Zhang was the only person recommended by the township leader to become the new management.

After learning of his experience, the Harbin company readily accepted Zhang and employed him as the manager of its property management company's Fuyuan branch in 2021. Apart from ensuring the water and heating supply to the town, the branch is also responsible for managing a hotel with dozens of villas, some of which boast transparent roofs for guests to enjoy the stars while lying in bed.

"It might be fate that I can manage such a hotel after 20 years working in the sector and I am doing my best to live up to the leaders' expectations who trust me," the fisherman-turned-manager says.

Apart from accomplishing his normal managerial obligations, such as assigning jobs to his 20-plus subordinates to ensure smooth operation, Zhang finds that he has an important balance to maintain. "On one hand, I must provide good service to the residents or villagers will be pointing fingers at not only me but also my family members," he sighs. "On the other hand, I am responsible to my company for which I must maintain a good reputation and profits."

He certainly has earned a good name for his company among the villagers, but profits are yet to come. The three-year COVID-19 pandemic frustrated many projects in Zhang's area. More tourists are coming to his village for the beautiful wetland scenery, unique Hezhe ethnic culture and its comfortable summer resorts, but the number is still short of Zhang's expectations.

"There are a lot of things that are out of my control. What I can do is to control spending, more promotions and wait for the environment to improve," Zhang says. The good news is that a 700-million yuan ($99.13 million) modern agriculture base facilitated by many greenhouses is opening in Zhang's town this winter. The first phase of the project will demand an increase in heating coverage by more than 200 percent.

"That increase will ensure my branch a fat profit. I hope I can submit a satisfactory exam paper to my company," Zhang says.

Devoted to family

Now married with a 7-year-old son, Zhang says he could not be more satisfied with his present life. To make up for quitting high school, he bought a two-bedroom apartment in the city of Fuyuan and sent his son to one of the best schools there. Each Friday, he drives 50 kilometers to the city to bring his wife and son back home to the fishing village for weekends. During holidays, his family dinner gathers several dozen family members and close relatives.

Enjoying such gatherings, Zhang says he hopes that he has rid himself of any misfortune that has haunted him most of his life. "I just want to live a quiet life and devote myself to my family, my company and my village," the fisherman-turned-manager says. He says he misses fishing, even more so when he sees his former fishing peers carrying nets to the harbor. "I hope to have a chance to show them that I am still a good fisherman," he says.

In a two-bedroom apartment Zhang rented next to his home in the village, there are many shelves on which dozens of rocks of different sizes and colors are displayed that he collected, considering them to be meteorites. "When I was a little boy, I often saw stars shooting through the night sky and landing nearby. Now I am bringing the stars back to my home," Zhang says.

Close to a window stands a telescope with its lens facing the sky. "I like to observe the stars. They look small but are huge. They look close but are far away from us. They sometimes make me think about my life," Zhang says.