Reforms

According to Chen Tingming, Party chief of the Hetaoba village committee, the village was once notoriously poor and the residents depended on traditional crops such as corn as well as animal husbandry for their livelihoods. A large proportion of what are now tea fields was barren land, while the village lacked arable land and there was little water for irrigation.

"There were no tea bushes, either," said Chen, adding that tea cultivation started in the 1970s as a result of reforms led by He Dianlun, the former Party chief of Hetaoba.

To help the villagers eradicate poverty, He initiated changes and introduced quality seedlings from the provincial Tea Research Institute in Meitan, which has a long history of growing green tea. He also invited researchers to teach the villagers management skills.

Chen said, "At first, the villagers were against the idea because they were worried about the tea market."

Gradually, however, the residents recognized the advantages of growing tea, and the area under cultivation expanded year by year.

"Now there are green-tea gardens all over the village, and the yellow soil has been turned into gold this way," Chen said.

The area under cultivation is now about 700 hectares, and almost every family in the village grows tea, runs a tea factory or a tea shop, and many have their own brands, according to Chen.

In 2016, the tea industry in the village generated combined income of 224 million yuan ($32 million), and the average income of the 3,800 residents was more than 16,400 yuan, he added.