Poster design: Ma Tianlong
In April, in the tea mountain of Tucui, Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing, tea farmers climbed over the tea mountain, shuttled between the tea trees, and skillfully picked pieces of tender green sprouts into the tea basket, showing a busy scene of tea picking.
In recent years, this small western county located in the hinterland of the Wuling Mountains has developed nearly 200,000 mu of tea, becoming the largest tea base county in Chongqing, with a comprehensive output value of 1.87 billion yuan in 2023.
The distribution map of the local agricultural industry shows that 22 of the 28 townships in Xiushan County have laid out the tea industry. In the past five years, the county has cultivated 44 tea processing enterprises, driving 40,000 people to work at their doorsteps and achieving an income of 320 million yuan. "The tea industry has become one of the important pillar industries of rural revitalization in our county. The relevant person in charge of Xiushan County said.
In April, the tea mountains of Xiushan County were Tucui, and the tea farmers were busy picking tea. Xinhua net hair (photo by Hu Cheng)
茶商汇聚 “茶叶”变“茶业”
In the border city of Xiushan, when talking about tea, we must start with Zhongling Town.
According to reports, Xiushan tea has a deep accumulation, and it is one of the origins of Chinese tea as the domain of "Bashan Gorge" recorded in the "Book of Tea". Xiushan Maojian is the most famous public brand in the local area, and Zhongling Town is the birthplace of Xiushan Maojian.
As one of the core areas of the tea industry in Xiushan County, Zhongling Town has a tea planting area of more than 12,000 acres, with large-scale tea gardens and tea processing plants, and has been rated as "Chongqing Tea Professional Town" by the Chongqing Municipal Agriculture and Rural Committee.
A village called Kaibao in Zhongling Town, with a tea planting area of 8,000 acres, an annual tea picking of 6 million catties, and 7 tea processing factories. "Almost every household grows tea, with an average area of 7 acres. Gong Ziyun, a member of the propaganda committee of Zhongling Town, introduced.
More than 20 years ago, due to its remote location in the mountains, it was difficult to export tea, and tea farmers made little profit. In 2002, a Fujian tea merchant named Chen Huanhua came here to transfer 300 acres of land, built an ecological tea garden, and established Zhongling Tea Company, which became the starting point for the scale development of the tea industry in Kaibao Village. After years of hard work, Chen Huanhua sold Xiushan tea to the tea wholesale markets in Beijing, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi, Chongqing and other places, and Xiushan tea has gone out since then.
In the transformation of "tea" to "tea industry", there are many examples of the villagers of Kaibao Village benefiting. Yang Changlin was a typical poor household, after taking advantage of the development of the tea industry, his family planted 4 acres of tea, with an annual income of nearly 20,000 yuan, and he also worked in Zhongling Tea Company, with a monthly basic salary of 2,600 yuan.
"Zhongling Tea Company's annual sales are about 40 million yuan, of which 22 million yuan is used to purchase fresh leaves, driving the average income of farmers per mu to more than 5,000 yuan. Chen Huanhua introduced.
Cases similar to Zhongling Town's "factory settled, all people grow tea" continue to emerge in Xiushan County. According to the data, in 2002, the tea planting area in Xiushan County was only 2,000 mu, and there were no special tea stores and distributors, and by 2024, the tea planting area in Xiushan County will be nearly 200,000 mu, with more than 40 tea stores and thousands of dealers.
On March 28, in the workshop of a tea processing factory in Hong'an Town, Xiushan County, roasted tea workers rushed to make new tea to supply the market. Xinhua net hair (photo by Hu Cheng)
E-commerce + logistics Xiushan tea is sold to the whole country
Xiushan tea is sold from the deep mountains of Wuling to the whole country, and e-commerce has made great contributions. Although this small western county is located in the depths of Wuling Mountain, it is committed to relying on the new format of "e-commerce +" to create an open highland of "online tea market".
Since 2014, Xiushan has seized the opportunity of the development of the network economy, created an e-commerce industrial park, and vigorously promoted the agglomeration of various e-commerce enterprises in the park. In Xiushan, the strong rise of e-commerce, the first thing that drives is the logistics industry, and the e-commerce and logistics industry promote each other, giving wings to the whole country for tea and other agricultural products.
"We have set up the first tea trading market in Wuling Mountain District in the logistics park, integrated into rural e-commerce formats such as Xiushan Village Head Platform and Wuling Life Museum, and helped Xiucha export by setting up a live broadcast team, introducing tea enterprises and tea merchants, and marketing tea products online and offline. Long Yunhui, director of the Xiushan County Economic Center, introduced.
Wuling Mountain Tea Trading Market provides a channel for Xiushan tea to go out of the mountains and go to the world. Xiushan tea is relying on the Chongqing-Huai Railway, the new land-sea channel, Wulingshan train and other external channels, a steady stream of transport. Data show that so far this year, the export volume of Xiushan tea has exceeded 200 million yuan.
Cherry blossom tea garden in Xinglongao Village, Meijiang Town, Xiushan County. Xinhua net hair (photo by Tang Lei)
Play a good "characteristic card" to enhance the efficiency of the tea industry
Xiushan is located in the hinterland of Wuling Mountain, with pleasant climate, abundant precipitation and perennial clouds and mist, which provides unique conditions for the growth of tea. Over the years, Xiushan County has adhered to the pursuit of "ecological tea and clean tea", adhered to the path of green ecological and organic development, and laid out the tea industry in the whole chain.
In order to improve the quality of tea, Xiushan County hired 15 experts and professors from Chongqing Tea Research Institute, China Tea Research Institute, Southwest University, etc. as an expert advisory group to comprehensively cooperate in technical consultation, achievement transformation, brand marketing, etc., continuously optimize the tea process, promote utility model technology, realize the deep integration of technology chain and industrial chain, and provide technical support for the development of Xiushan tea industry.
Every year during the tea picking season, in the workshops of tea processing factories in Xiushan County, you can see the busy scene of roasted tea workers rushing to make new tea. The newly harvested tea is processed through the "finishing-rolling-drying" processing line to achieve clean, continuous and automated production, and the tea leaves are further improved in terms of color, aroma, taste and shape.
According to the data, at present, Xiushan County has cultivated 44 tea processing enterprises and 66 tea professional cooperatives, and built one tea processing center with the highest degree of intelligence and cleanliness in the southeast area of Chongqing, with an annual processing capacity of more than 12,000 tons, and the tea processing capacity ranks first in Chongqing.
A car drives through the cherry blossom tea plantation. Xinhua net hair (photo by Tang Lei)
On April day, strolling through the tea plantations of Xiushan, in addition to the figure of tea farmers picking tea, you can also see many tourists who come to tea mountains to check in.
In order to further enhance the benefits of the tea industry, Xiushan County pays attention to the integrated development of tea culture and tourism, relying on activities rich in agricultural characteristics such as tea picking festivals, national tea drinking days, cultural festivals, and farmers' harvest festivals, and has launched more than 10 kinds of tea tourism products, and the integration of tea tourism is deeply crossed, and the development trend of "agriculture +" multi-format has been initially formed.
In addition, Xiushan County also digs deep into the traditional culture of Xiushan tea, identifies the top ten most beautiful tea gardens such as Xinglongao Cherry Blossom Tea Garden in Meijiang Town, Laosha Tea Garden in Hong'an Town, Kaibao Tea Garden in Zhongling Town, and excavates four ancient tea tree groups in Hong'an, Erong, Zhongling and Ocean; actively participates in and undertakes various exhibitions and competitions, and has won more than 230 awards at or above the municipal level such as "China Tea Cup" and "Huaming Cup" special gold medals.
Source: Xinhuanet client