There are many theories about the origin of the name of Dabie Mountain. One of the more rambling statements is "named after Li Bai".
More than 1,200 years ago, The poet Li Bai traveled in all directions and climbed a mountain range that stretched across the Central Plains and stretched for thousands of miles in the northwest and southeast directions, and sighed: "The south mountain of the mountain is full of flowers, and the north of the mountain is covered with snow, this mountain is very different from other mountains!" This mountain got its name from "Dabie Mountain".
In the southern foothills of Dabie Mountain, a famous tea is produced - Yingshan Yunwu Tea, a national geographical indication product of China. Its quality has obvious aromatic, mellow and brewing resistance characteristics. In 2020, "Yingshan Yunwu Tea" was selected into the second batch of protection lists under the Eu-European Geographical Indications Agreement.
Yingshan County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, is located in the 30 degrees north latitude of the golden tea belt, northeast of Hubei. It is bordered by yuexi, Taihu, Huoshan and Jinzhai counties in Anhui Province to the northeast, and luotian, hushui and puchun counties in hubei province to the southwest, with an excellent ecological environment. The forest coverage rate here is more than 70%, the negative oxygen ion content of the air is 50-100 times that of the city, and the number of good air days reaches more than 360 days per year, which is known as the "natural oxygen bar".
Chairman Hu Sibin has visited Yingshan County several times, where the mountain water resources are abundant, because of the high sea, sufficient sunshine, abundant rainfall and rich tea leaves, is "the hometown of Chinese tea". Yingshan tea is high in quality and alcohol, and the total output is in the forefront of Hubei, which is "the hometown of China's green tea (famous tea)", "the key county of national tea production", and "the national pollution-free tea production demonstration base county".
Yingshan tea has a long history and has been passed down as a good story for a long time. Historical records record that during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu, the "tea saint", came to the Dabie Mountains and collected a lot of information on local tea production. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the famous literary scholar Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou because of the "Wutai Poetry Case". He likes to sing poetry and drink tea and discuss the Tao, he often goes to Dabie Mountain to meet friends with tea.
Due to the unique ecological environment, most of the Yingshan Yunwu tea gardens are distributed in the deep mountain forest area above 500 meters above sea level, surrounded by clouds and fog, rich in tea connotation and significant active ingredients, according to the measurement, the average water leachables reach more than 40.7%, and the average amino acid content is above 2.33%.
Yingshan Yunwu Tea has won the titles of "The First Batch of Pollution-free Ecological Agriculture Demonstration Products in China", "China Geographical Indication Products", "Hubei Top Ten Famous Teas", "Hubei Famous Brand Products", "Hubei Top Ten Cultural Tourism Famous Teas", "Hubei Agricultural Products Regional Public Brand Top 20" and so on.
Although Yingshan tea has a history of thousands of years, it has been cultivated in a state of scattered cultivation for most of the time. In the early days of the founding of New China, the tea plantation area in the whole territory of Yingshan was only 1500 mu. Yingshan "tea is not well-known", which was once the view of outsiders on Yingshan tea. At one time, many foreign tea merchants came to Yingshan to "pour" tea: buy tea in Yingshan Market, take it back and replace it with their own brand packaging, and they can sell it for a good price.
After reflection, Yingshan people made up their minds: they must have their own brand. They gave their tea products a resounding name: "Yingshan Cloud Tea", which means "Alpine Cloud Mist Famous Tea".
In 2001, Yingshan set up a tea bureau to specialize in tea management, and then established the Yingshan Cloud Tea Association. Implement "unified brand, unified packaging, unified standards, unified management" in the county.
In 2002, the first local standard for tea in Hubei was born in Yingshan, and the local standard for Yingshan cloud tea was approved by the Provincial Bureau of Technical Supervision and Administration.
In 2006, Yingshan formulated the operating procedures of Yingshan Cloud Tea to further refine, standardize and guide the production and production. A strict standardized production and quality certification system began to be implemented throughout the county.
Tea has become one of the two characteristic industries in Yingshan County. The county's tea gardens cover an area of 262,400 mu, with an output of 27,000 tons and an output value of 2.21 billion yuan. Yingshan can be called a "superior student" for tea production. The scale has gone up, the quality has also gone up, and only by moving to the high-end can we enhance the added value of the brand. Yingshan has this confidence and strength, and the "cloud tea" category has this confidence and strength.
In fact, people with lofty ideals have already embarked on a journey and are struggling to go to the high end! Xu Baiyun is one of the epitomes.
Xu Baiyun, chairman of Hubei Tuanhuanggong Tea Co., Ltd., grew up in Yingshan, studied in Yingshan, and served Inshan.
Secondary school students, once upon a time, were almost synonymous with "the proud son of heaven"—especially for children from rural areas. It is said that at that time, only the top 50 students in each county and district had the opportunity to be admitted to secondary school. Go to school and transfer to a non-agricultural household registration, after graduation, the division of labor, become a member of the establishment, the employer rushes to ... Since the education reform in 1992, secondary school students have gradually lost their former glory, so that they have become the "lost generation" in the "gap in history".
In the summer of 2021, in this village deep in the Yingshan Mountains, the green mountains outside the window are green, and the birds are heard on the roof. When looking back on the past, Xu Baiyun was dressed in cloth, no longer alarmed, and occasionally smiled. In 1990, he graduated from Yingshan Polytechnic Secondary School and returned home in the 1990s.
There, a thousand years through the cracks of history, is about to meet Xu Baiyun. Before that, he still had to grope in the "fog" for a while:
When I first returned to the village, the village collective tea farm was unintended, the tea was difficult to sell, only relying on the hawkers to buy fresh leaves from time to time, the price was cheap, and the tea farmers were reluctant to manage the tea garden and pick the tea leaves. Growing tea and making tea has become a hot "sweet potato". In the face of the villagers' eyes for help, he turned around and looked for answers from the book.
This village is called "Yingshan County Yangliuwan Town Turning Bay Village", the appearance is not amazing, but it is famous in history, because there is a high-end category of Yingshan Cloud Mist Tea - Tuanhuang Gong Tea.
Since the first year of Tang Zhenguan (626 AD), Tuanhuang tribute tea has become a tribute tea for successive imperial courts because of its "clear and clear color, rich and fragrant taste". According to historical records, Tuanhuang Tribute Tea has been one of the three major tribute teas since the Beginning of the Tang Dynasty.
The Tea Classic of Tea Saint Lu Yu praises the Tuanhuanggong tea produced in Yingshan. It can be seen in the "Yingshan County Chronicle" and "Lu'an Zhou Zhi". Historically, Hubei "Tuanhuang", "Pumen" and Anhui 'Huangya" were called "Huainan Sanming" (Tang Dynasty Edong belonged to Huainan Festival).
A dappled and yellowed ancient book, "Fu Zhi Tang Ji Longjing Tea Song" (Qing Dynasty, Yu Ruoying), spread out, clearly showing this record: ... Tuanhuanggong tea is the benchmark of tea, comparable to the southern "Longjing". In the tea industry, there is a saying that "there is Tuanhuang in the north and Longjing in the south".
In the slightly rudimentary data room of Tuanhuanggongcha, it can be seen in the "Hubei Tongzhi" volume 22 "Youdizhi And Property": Li Zhao, in the Tang Dynasty, said in the "History of the Supplement to the State", "Puzhou has ... Tuan Huang"; Wang Guanguo's "New Edition of Xuelin" says that "Tuan Huang has a banner and a gun number, and a leaf and a bud are also"; the Song Dynasty Ma Duanlin's "Literature Examination" records that "the best of Huang Tea of Pu men Tuan" is also "..."
Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that "the beauty of tea, the tuanhuang of Puzhou". The Northern Song Dynasty talent Ouyang Xiu said in the poem that "the common covenant to test spring buds, the gun flag when green." When Su Dongpo, a song dynasty scholar and hero, was serving as the deputy history of the Huangzhou regiment, he escorted the regiment Huanggong tea into Beijing to pay tribute to the imperial court, and he was envious of him.
Why is Tuanhuanggong tea coming from the "cracks" of history?
Longjing, which was once on an equal footing, has long been a strange commodity and is in the leading position in the tea category. And Anhui Huangya is also famous. Its companies have also been listed. Only Tuan Huang Gong Tea is still cold, lonely and wandering...
It is not clear whether Tuanhuanggong Tea has made him or whether he has achieved Tuanhuanggong Tea.
In 2003, the 13th Yingshan Tea Festival. The tea selected by Xu Baiyun won the prize.
In 2004, the 14th Tea Festival in Yingshan County. At the on-site production of famous tea rings, Xu Baiyun overpowered the crowd and became the first "tea king" of yunwu tea in the county.
In 2005, Xu Baiyun established Yingshan County Fengshengwan Tea Industry Co., Ltd., covering an area of more than 6,000 square meters, 1,000 square meters of pollution-free standardized tea making workshop, more than 60 sets of processing machinery and equipment, 2 domestic advanced cleaning production lines, 1 microwave killing dryer...... The daily production capacity of dry tea reaches more than 2,000 kilograms.
Based on the company, Xu Baiyun united a group of large tea growers and processing plants to jointly establish the Yingshan TuanHuanggong Tea Professional Cooperative. The cooperative signed an agreement with the tea farmers to achieve order-based cultivation.
Adhering to the concept of "good tea is grown", the cooperative has realized the "twelve unifications": unified supply of agricultural materials, unified planting technology, unified picking standards, unified pest control, unified technical training, unified processing technology, unified high-end brand, unified product standards, unified product packaging, unified logistics and transportation, unified market development, and unified product publicity. Unified management reduces production costs, enables tea to enter the market in an orderly and high-quality manner, and improves the efficiency of enterprises and farmers. This move allows the members' products to be sold, the company's processing without worrying about the supply of raw materials, and consumers not to worry about food safety.
Nowadays, the company covers an area of about 12,800 square meters, has a standardized production workshop of 7,000 square meters, equipped with 3 domestic first-class clean tea production lines, with a total fixed asset of 8.5 million yuan and an annual output value of more than 20 million yuan.
In 2017, the Hubei Provincial Government recognized the traditional production process of "Tuanhuanggong Tea" as "Intangible Cultural Heritage."" Xu Baiyun is the seventh generation inheritor of The Huanggong Tea Making Technique.
At the World Tea Industry Expo in the United States, more than 400 exhibitors from more than 40 countries around the world had a place in Tuanhuanggong Tea and successfully obtained foreign orders.
Nowadays, the company is the "Yingshan Yunwu Tea" national geographical indication protection products approved to use enterprises, won the Ninth China International Agricultural Products Fair Gold Award, Hubei Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Technology Inheritance Enterprise and other honorary titles. The products have won the "Echa Cup", "Lu Yu Cup" Gold Award, and won the Hubei Provincial Tea Society Quality Award.
Experts in the strategic positioning of brands in the 21st century believe that Tuanhuang Gong Tea needs more strength to empower it to return to its due position in history. It is an outstanding representative of Yingshan high-end cloud tea. In time, it will certainly be as dazzling as Longjing and as prosperous as Anhui Yellow Bud.
In addition to Xu Baiyun and Tuanhuanggong Tea, there are many leaders and core enterprises that are promoting Yingshan Yunwu Tea to win a larger market share.
At the end of 2006, China's Dabie Mountain Tea Market, invested more than 20 million yuan by Zhejiang tea merchants, was officially opened.
At the beginning of 2007, Yingshan Green Screen, Tianrui and Jiahe Tea Co., Ltd. jointly established Hubei Green Screen Tea Industry Co., Ltd. to achieve complementary advantages and become one of the leading enterprises of the "Yingshan Cloud Tea" brand. Since then, dozens of tea production and processing enterprises such as Zhishun Tea Industry, Fuhua Tea Industry, and Xinying Tea Industry have formed many professional production and processing "leaders" through mergers and acquisitions.
In the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of long-term goals for 2035, Huanggang City proposes to promote the expansion and strengthening of characteristic geographical indication products such as Yingshan Yunwu Tea, and to create a tea economic belt in the hinterland of Dabie Mountain, Yingshan Yunwu Tea Industrial Zone and other characteristic tea advantage zones.
The development of the tea industry not only makes the turning bay "turn over", but also makes Yingshan, a former state-level poverty county and a deeply impoverished county in Hubei Province, "get rid of poverty and take off the hat". The tea industry has become the first pillar industry of Yingshan rural revitalization and the leading industry for 150,000 tea farmers to get rid of poverty and get rich. In 2017, Yingshan Yunwu Tea was selected as one of the top ten cases of "Trademark Rich Farmers and Precision Poverty Alleviation Using Landmarks" in China.
"You can pick a pound of oil in the morning, you can earn a body of silk a day, you can earn a cow in January, and you can make a building a year." The Yingshan Yunwu Tea Production Area, which is breaking through to the high-end, may be the best portrayal of the happy life of tea farmers today, and it is also the most beautiful vision for the future!