Polishing the "Qi Hong" business card Anhui Qimen embraced the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" circle of friends

On the 15th, the Wanli Tea Ceremony World Cultural Heritage Value and Heritage Application Strategy Seminar was held in Beijing, and Qimen County, Anhui Province, participated in the meeting through video link. Photo by Liu Hao

Hefei, December 15 (Liu Hao) "Keemun grasps the steady progress of the application for heritage on the one hand, and the promotion of Qihong brand construction on the other, and constantly polishes the world business card of Keemun black tea." Wu Zhiying, deputy county magistrate of Qimen County, Anhui Province, said in an exclusive interview with China News Network on the 15th.

On the same day, the Wanli Tea Ceremony World Cultural Heritage Value and Heritage Application Strategy Seminar was held in Beijing, and Qimen County, Anhui Province, participated in the meeting through video link.

The "Wanli Tea Ceremony" is another important international trade route that has emerged in Eurasia after the "Silk Road". From the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese tea from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province in the south, passing through Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and other places, crossing the Mongolian Plateau, and finally reaching St. Petersburg, Russia, a total distance of more than 14,000 kilometers.

In March 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially included the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" in the "Preliminary List of China's World Cultural Heritage" and established the "Wanli Tea Ceremony Declaration World Cultural Heritage Office".

Wu Zhiying said that the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" is an international trade route running through Eurasia, connecting the cultural heritage, beautiful landscapes and national customs of China, Russia and Mongolia, and has become an internationally renowned cultural tourism IP. "Keemun County's declaration of the Wanli Tea Ceremony Heritage Project aims to help further expand the international market of Keemun black tea and help the Keemun black tea industry become bigger and stronger."

Keemun County is rich in black tea, Keemun black tea (referred to as Qi Hong) through the Zhangjiang River to Jiangxi Poyang Lake, and then to Jiujiang, and then transferred to Wuhan, embarked on the Wanli Tea Ceremony, exported to home and abroad.

In recent years, the three levels of governments in Anhui Province, Huangshan City and Qimen County have attached great importance to the application for the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" and solidly promoted regional cooperation among the members of the Alliance.

Wu Zhiying said that Qimen County actively docked with the Wanli Tea Ceremony Joint Application Office, deeply excavated the historical and cultural connotation of Qi Hong and the historical relics of the Wanli Tea Ceremony in the county and achieved phased results.

The Leading Group for the Declaration of the Wanli Tea Ceremony World Cultural Heritage in Qimen County excavated and collected and sorted out the historical data of Qihong, and edited the special issue of "Keemun Black Tea and Wanli Tea Ceremony", which systematically displayed the origin, development, prosperity, production, processing, transportation, sales and other aspects of Keemun black tea in the past hundred years, providing a solid historical support for the county's declaration of the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" world cultural heritage.

Historical sites such as the former site of the tea industry improvement field in Qimen County and the ancient wharf of the Zhangjiang River have witnessed the history of waterway transportation in the Qimen section of the Wanli Tea Ceremony. In recent years, the Qimen County Party Committee and County Government have deepened the excavation of Qihong cultural heritage, and done a good job in protecting heritage sites along the route and improving environmental features.

Nowadays, the tea industry improvement field gate, workshop, playground, etc. are readily available, and many of the tea-making machinery imported in the past are retained; the ancient wharf of The Zhangjiang River, in the clear water and blue waves, the old appearance is clearly recognizable.

Wu Zhiying said that in the next step, the county will fully cooperate with the technical team to carry out further research on the cultural relics along the route, focusing on excavating the internal connection between the cultural relics points and the "Wanli Tea Ceremony" and fully excavating the outstanding value of the existing historical relics of the tea industry. With the support of on-site data, we will give project and financial support to the remains and historical buildings of the tea industry with important value in the county, strengthen protection and management, promote the construction of the protection and management system of the Qimen section of the Wanli Tea Ceremony, and effectively maintain the authenticity and integrity of the heritage.

Wu Zhiying said that while excavating and protecting the history and culture of Qi Hong, it will also increase product promotion efforts, rely on the brand influence of "Wanli Tea Ceremony", based on tea gardens, black tea museums and other formats, increase the added value of the tea industry, realize the integrated development of tea industry production technology, tea culture, tea garden ecology, etc. with the tourism industry, form a new model of "tea + tourism" tea tourism industry integration, promote tea tourism cooperation, and attract more domestic and foreign tourists to experience the tea journey. (End)

Source: China News Network