Now I can see my children every day

I am a native of Beigang (a village on Haitan Island, Pingtan county), and my parents and their parents were fishermen.

After graduating from a vocational school in 1998, I worked for a relative's construction company on tunneling projects.

Digging tunnels is a dangerous job, like fishing, but the pay is more stable.

I moved with the projects, and have stayed in many places around the country.

Tunnel workers live in remote places with no entertainment facilities.

If I fell ill, I rarely went to the hospital, because it was too far from our place of work. I usually went home three times a year.

At the end of 2016, I saw great changes in Beigang: The environment was better and cleaner, and the county government had allocated funds to help people build up the tourism industry.

I decided to go home and transform my house into a homestay. My stone house was built about 80 years ago, and has good sea views.

My homestay opened in May last year, with investment of about 1.5 million yuan ($223,000). It has nine rooms.

The great thing is that I now have a stable job and can see my two children every day.

I can also take care of my parents. My father takes our homestay guests to buy seafood at the market.

By the start of this month, our homestay had made 40,000 yuan overall, a little lower than average.

However, I have just started, and soon I will hire a professional to join the operation.

Lin Jianhua spoke with Zhang Yi.