Family Story: Taking unpaid leave and venturing into Zhongguancun

Narrator: Liu Baoliang

Address: No. 9, Minzuyuan Road

Family members: his wife and his son

After coming back from a trip to Mount Wutai with a group of travel buddies, Liu was again plagued with gout.

Holding his swollen left leg, Liu recalled that two decades ago, when he worked in the instrument plant in the China Seismological Bureau’s Institute of Geophysics, he would gather dozens of young members and do some part-time work on weekends using the instruments in the plant. After earning 1000 yuan, they would climb to the top of Mount Tai to watch the sunrise.

That was before 1989.

In 1989, Liu was engaged in the research of new products in the plant. The salary per month was 88 yuan, and together with various kinds of welfare like bathing allowances and a meager bonus, his monthly income stood at 106 to 110 yuan.

That year, Liu was helping out in a colleague’s company. The colleague, after taking unpaid leave, had opened his own company. At that time, he had accepted a commission from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau to make a batch of alarms. There was an electronic circuit board both on the alarm’s display screen and in the alarm’s core. “Our job was to weld the electronic circuit boards,” Liu recalled. Since he and his colleague were very close, Liu could take the materials back home to do the welding. “I could weld three to four circuit boards every night. So on average I could earn 500 yuan per month,” he said.

Liu’s son was also born that year. Amidst the national fervor of the taking leave without pay and starting business ventures, the 29-year-old Liu quickly made up his mind to do the same and succeeded in persuading his wife and his unit within one month. Without too many formalities, Liu left the China Seismological Bureau, the place he had worked for 11 years since his graduation from high school at 18.

In 1989, my son was born. Amidst a nationwide  trend of starting business ventures, I decided to  take my chance by going to Zhongguancun to work.  I was 29 at that time. As a result, my son was  raised drinking imported powdered milk.

“While I am young, I must take my chance. Even if I fail, I can find a new job,” Liu recalled. He said that the only thing on his mind was the small amount of fixed salary in the workplace compared with the huge temptation of going into business which formed a sharp contrast. He said: “Opportunities are everywhere. And I can make full use of my abilities and make more money.”

However, Liu and his wife came to an agreement that they would not tell his parents, who worked in Chinese Academy of Sciences, that he had decided to take unpaid leave and finally to quit his job. The secret was kept from them for almost a decade.

In 1989, Liu Baoliang was helping in an old colleague’s company and could earn 500 yuan per month. However, he did not tell his parents, who worked in Chinese Academy of Sciences, that he had decided to take unpaid leave and finally to quit his job.