"Post-80s" Liu Chao introduced the development of The Berry Tea Industry in Zhangjiajie. Photo by Yang Huafeng
"Post-80s" Liu Chao introduced the development of The Berry Tea Industry in Zhangjiajie. Photo by Yang Huafeng
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Zhongxin Network Zhangjiajie May 1 title: "Post-80s" Liu Chao Rural Dreams: Growing Berry Tea to Help Rural Revitalization Barren Mountains "Cloaked in Green" and "Raw Gold"
Author Deng Xia Zhang Xueying
"I am a child who grew up in the mountains, and the roots in my heart are still in these mountains." Standing at the top of Baima Mountain in Yongding District, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, Liu Chao, a "post-80s" generation, has a panoramic view of the berry tea base with terraced fields, and the villagers carrying baskets are busy picking tea.
Today, the Baima Mountain Tianmen County Berry Tea Base, which is now full of greenery, was still a barren mountain more than a decade ago, mainly distributed in Xiongjialuo Village and Gaofeng Village in Qiaotou Township, Yongding District. Liu Chao was born in Xiongjialuo Village. In his memory, "poverty" was once synonymous with his hometown. "Traffic is blocked, there is only one dirt road in and out of the village; the nature of the soil is not good, and the harvest of the land is only 60% outside..."
Zhangjiajie berry tea has led to the employment and income of local farmers. Photo by Yang Huafeng
After graduating from university, Liu Chao rose from pharmacy salesman to general manager, and then started a chain of pharmacies. After his small achievements, he wanted to lead the villagers to plant Chinese medicinal herbs. "The tuition fees for my schooling are all made up by the villagers, and if I am rich, I am not rich, so I want the villagers to get rich together."
Liu Chao, who strives to change the poverty situation in his hometown, returned to his hometown in 2008 to start a business again, planting Chinese medicinal materials, and established Hunan Qiankun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in 2014. The fact is not satisfactory, because the choice of varieties is not suitable for the local environment, the company invested a lot, but the results were small.
After thinking about the pain, Liu Chao repositioned and decided to do the in-depth development and utilization of "medicinal and food homologous" products, and finally selected Zhangjiajie berry tea with the reputation of "king of flavonoids" through half a year's research.
"Zhangjiajie berry tea has a variety of health benefits, and the effect of clearing the throat is obvious." Liu Chao said that in recent years, Yongding District has cultivated and developed Zhangjiajie berry tea as a leading characteristic industry of "one county and one specialty", built the berry tea industry into a leading industry for rural revitalization, and given various support in policy support, technical services, demonstration drive, brand cultivation and other aspects. "We adopt the business model of 'company + cooperative association + base + farmer' to promote the new green standardized planting technology of 'dense and short' berry tea, and drive local villagers to employment and increase income."
At the Berry Tea Base in Tianmen County, Baima Mountain, villagers carrying baskets on their backs are busy picking tea. Photo by Yang Huafeng
Liu Tuanjie, a 42-year-old villager in Xiongjialuo Village, is now the team leader of the Berry Tea Base in Tianmen County, Baima Mountain, responsible for the management and protection of more than 100 acres of tea gardens in the base. "Organize villagers to carry out physical control of pests and diseases, weeding, tea picking, etc., and the company has strict standards for each process." He said that it is currently the tea picking season, and tea pickers can pick one or two dozen pounds of tea a day, buy at a price of 7 yuan per kilogram, and can earn about 150 yuan a day with sharp hands and feet, and the time is flexible, and more is more. He himself became rich from berry tea, "built a small three-story western-style building, and bought a car."
It is understood that the total area of berry tea in Yongding District, the "hometown of Chinese berry tea", has reached 115,000 mu, and the comprehensive output value in 2020 is 1.47 billion yuan, driving the number of employees to reach 55,000. Liu Chao's company has its own berry tea planting base of 5,200 mu and a rural and commercial interconnection base of 16,500 mu; has established the country's first berry tea engineering technology research center, with 38 patents authorized; and formulated 22 zhangjiajie berry tea industrialization production standards. In the Hunan Qiankun Health Industrial Park invested and built in Zhangjiajie High-tech Zone, 8 production lines and 5 GMP workshops with 100,000-level purification level will be built in 3 workshops of medicinal and food substitute tea, functional food and sanitary cosmetics.
"On the one hand, we extend the berry tea industry chain and develop high value-added products such as berry tea masks and berry tea feed; on the other hand, we promote the integration of tea tourism and build a berry tea theme park, a berry tea production and processing and a tea making experience hall." Liu Chao said that the company is combining the rural revitalization plan of Xiongjialuo Village to build the berry tea base of Tianmen County, Baima Mountain, the filming location of the TV series "So Many Delicacies in Jiangshan", into an eco-tourism tourist park that combines tea tourism. Come here, you can not only experience the local customs and customs of Zhangjiajie such as tea garden scenery, special food, Tujia song and dance, but also special projects such as tea picking, campfire camping, barbecue, killing pigs, and playing rice cakes.
"Nowadays, the mountain is no longer synonymous with poverty, the green water and green mountains are the golden mountains and silver mountains, especially in Zhangjiajie, it is a symbol of wealth and resources, and there are treasures everywhere." Liu Chao, who has the titles of vice president of the China Rural Youth Prosperity Leaders Association and "100 Most Beautiful Poverty Alleviation Figures" in Hunan Province in 2020, has more expectations for the future: to create a whole industrial chain for the integration and development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries of Zhangjiajie berry tea, and to help rural revitalization and local regional economic development. (End)