Lai Pei-yuen has three
principles--no cutting down
trees, no selling trees, and
no leaving profits earned from
the trees to his descendants.

Lai Pei-yuen believes tree-
growing brings good fortune.

Believing in trees: The man who dedicates his life to growing trees

Words by Yang Wen-lin
Translated by Angel Pu
Photos provided by Lai Pei-yuan

What would inspire someone to grow 200,000 trees?
What might cause someone to spend millions on trees over 30 years?
Mr. Lai, who has made tree-growing the main focus of his life, reveals his hope for the future.

Cultivating 'green money' on Heping district's Daxueshan
At the age of only 23, Lai Pei-yuan already had over a hundred million NT dollars worth of property but, by the time he had reached 30, he had started spending all his money on one thing--growing trees. Today almost 30 years later, he has grown over 200,000 trees on the slopes of Daxueshan (Great Snow Mountain). Lai says a lot of people take him for a fool, but he's grateful and sees tree-growing as his mission in life. "Growing trees is my belief," he says.

As the youngest child of a poor family, Lai recalls that when he was young, his whole family of nine had to stay in one small house. At the age of 14, he began working in his family's transportation company during an era when Taiwan's economy was booming. Back then. he would only rest three or four hours per day and almost took no days off. Thanks to his efforts, the company grew to over 1,500 semi-trailer trucks, 200 trailer heads and over 20,000 tires. This meant that, at its peak, the company was earning NT$300,000 per day.

From tycoon to forest manager
This was an era when a two-story house only cost NT$150,000. At the age of 23, Lai already owned property worth over NT$200,000 and, by the time he reached 30, the total value of his holdings was over NT$1 billion. Lai notes that when he was young he worked in many big central Taiwan companies and witnessed the rise and fall of various owners. This led him decide to choose another road in life with the aim of doing something significant and meaningful rather than just thinking about how to increase the numbers in his account book.

It's not unusual for a man who owns property worth over a billion dollars to buy nice things for himself and enjoy the good life. However, according to Lai, since leaving the army he has never spent over NT$300,000 in total. He has never even been to a karaoke. By contrast, he prefers living a life that is frugal and meaningful life over one where he "has nothing besides money". As part of this philosophy, he believes that growing trees creates good fortune, and he often cries out of pure joy when he observes the trees he has raised in the mountains.

Lai usually plants five-inch seedlings, with tree varieties including Formosan cypress, pines and camphor trees, all native plants. It has been over 20 years since he planted his first seedling and today everywhere one looks there are trees over 10 meters tall. He says he wants to buy as much land as possible for growing trees, noting that it's an amazing experience to turn a plot of unwanted land into a beautiful forest and watch each tree he has planted growing bigger and bigger. He sees himself as an office worker who goes to the work everyday just like others, with the only difference being the fact that his "office" is the mountain. Lai goes out at 5 a.m. and comes home at 6 p.m. daily, doing this for almost 28 years without feeling tired.

Tree-growing a lifelong career
Lai hopes he can help protect the environment by growing trees and believes that it's an investment towards a better future. In the beginning, many people considered him a fool but, not caring what others thought, he stuck with his convictions. After a time, his family began helping him. His two sons and daughter now all go to Daxueshan to plant trees with him and his oldest son, Lai Chieng-chong, even opened a coffee shop named Coffee Tree in downtown Taichung to promote his father's ideals. The coffee served at Coffee Tree is from coffee trees the senior Lai planted in the mountains. According to the younger Lai, the coffee trees grow between every two camphor trees, making the beans difficult to harvest. To allow the customers taste the flavors of the mountain and forest, Lai Chiang-chong has devised a technique for adding camphor-tree leaf extract to the coffee.

Lai Chiang-chong says that profits from Coffee Tree are all used to grow more trees and protect the forest. To follow his father's three principles--no cutting down trees, no selling trees, and no leaving profits earned from the trees to descendants--they have created a foundation for the forest that ensures it will live on, even if future generations of the family don't want to maintain it. Also, in order to protect the forest, it's not open to the public and is guarded 24 hours per day. Although the whole family has dedicated itself to the forest and spends billions on trees, Lai has never considered turning the forest into a forest park of some sort, because it would undoubtedly damage the environment. The cafe isn't meant to make big money but, rather, to promote the elder Lai's beliefs and draw more people to their tree-growing team.

Looking back over two-plus decades of growing trees, Lai says that all he has ever wanted to do was the right thing. What he witnessed at work as a young man led him to believe that no business will last forever. However, growing trees will never be affected by economics. Unlike human employees, trees don't go on strike and don't need labor insurance or severance pay. He also adds that he believes that the trees are the future and that no other business has what he does. "As a pioneer, I hope that more and more people will join our work and create a better future," he concludes.

Left: Lai Pei-yuan also grows coffee in his forest, and the profits from the coffee shop will be used on the forest, in what he calls a "green cycle".