Li Houqiang calls for the world to consume famous Chinese tea

Tea drinking in our country has a long history. Some believe it originated with Shennong in ancient times, while others believe it originated in the Zhou Dynasty or during the Qin and Han dynasties. According to research by relevant scholars, the artificial cultivation of tea originated in Mount Mengding in Sichuan, the earliest in the world, with a history of more than 2,000 years. Chang Qu of the Jin Dynasty recorded in Chronicles of Huayang: “When King Wu of Zhou attacked King Zhou of Shang, he indeed obtained the troops of Ba and Shu, as recorded in the Book of Documents……cinnabar, lacquer, tea, honey……all were presented as tribute”, that is, by 1066 BC, the Ba-Shu region was already using tea as tribute. Gu Yanwu, one of the “three great Confucian scholars” of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said in Record of Daily Knowledge, “After the people of Qin took Shu, there began the practice of drinking tea.” The implication is that before the people of Qin entered Shu, present-day Sichuan already knew of tea drinking. In addition, Sichuan is also the place of origin of China's Tea Horse Road and the production area of Chinese Tibetan tea and border tea. In this sense, Sichuan tea is the epitome of Chinese tea.

I. The Historical Influence of Chinese Tea in the World

The Silk Road, as an international channel for ancient economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, opened a window for trade between China and the West, provided a platform for commodity trade, and also spread Chinese tea to the West. When Arab merchants purchased silk in the Great Tang, they also brought back the magical tea and transported it to Persia. Almost at the same time, Turkish merchants also bartered for tea on China's borders. In 851 AD, the North African merchant Sulayman specifically wrote about tea in his book Account of India and China. It can thus be seen that the Silk Road made Chinese tea popular in Islamic countries as early as the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty, as the world economic and cultural center of the time, was also an object of study for Japan, separated by a narrow strip of water. The dissemination and development of tea in Japan, from planting and manufacturing to drinking, was inseparable from Japanese monks who came to China to study during the Tang and Song dynasties. In the process of studying Buddhism in China, Japanese monks also spread tea culture to Japan. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, famous Japanese monks such as Saicho and Kukai brought tea seeds back from China, planted them widely in Japan, and carried forward Chinese tea culture in Japan.

In the 38th year of the Jiajing reign of Emperor Shizong of Ming (1559 AD), the Venetian writer Ramusio wrote Chinese Tea and A Voyage and Travel Account, introducing tea culture to Europe for the first time. The following year, the first Catholic missionary to China, the Portuguese Cruz, brought back to Europe the tea knowledge he had learned in China. At the same time, his compatriot sailors brought tea back directly from China. In the 17th century, Chinese tea began to become popular in the West. In 1607 AD, the first box of tea was shipped by the Dutch East India Company to Amsterdam and became the most fashionable drink in the Netherlands; in 1618 AD, Chinese diplomats brought several boxes of tea as precious gifts to the Tsar of Imperial Russia, and tea entered Russia from then on, subsequently influencing the entire Slavic people to become a tea-drinking people; in 1636 AD, tea spread to France; in 1650 AD, tea became widespread in England. In 1662 AD, the tea-loving Portuguese princess Catherine married into England and became England's first tea-drinking queen, after which tea drinking swept England. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch East India Company almost monopolized the tea business in Europe. After the 18th century, Britain won in its maritime hegemony confrontation with the Netherlands, the Dutch East India Company subsequently went bankrupt, and the British East India Company replaced its monopoly on the tea trade. The company profited more than one million pounds annually from the tea trade, accounting for 90% of total commercial profits and 10% of total British treasury revenue. At the same time, British trade with China expanded rapidly. China's tea exports reached 18 million jin per year, and the value of the goods accounted for more than ninety percent of total exports, making it a well-deserved industry leader. While Chinese tea exports brought huge fiscal revenue to Britain, they also made it bear a huge trade deficit, so Britain adopted the export of opium to China to balance this trade deficit, and the Opium War subsequently broke out. The defeat in the Opium War forced China to open more treaty ports, and also allowed tea seedlings to flow abroad. Britain vigorously developed tea planting in its colonies of India and Sri Lanka. Subsequently, China lost its position as the sole supplier to the world tea market, and once-prosperous Chinese tea never regained its glory.

II. The Current World Status of Chinese Tea

Just as Chinese is the language with the largest number of speakers in the world, tea is also the plant beverage with the largest number of drinkers in the world. Production and scale have risen, but economic value is still far from sufficient. Sichuan is the birthplace of world tea, and Mount Mengding is the earliest place where tea was artificially planted. Sichuan's original tea output is the largest, and it is a raw material supply area for some tea factories outside the province; Sichuan ranks first in the country in the number of teahouses and has the most tea drinkers. The Sichuan Basin is a green basin, a basin of a thousand rivers, and is most suitable for planting tea. Therefore, it can be said that for world tea, look to China; for Chinese tea, look to Sichuan.

(I) Sichuan's geographical location is special, but it is mainly a tea raw material exporter

Sichuan is one of China's main tea-producing areas, and even more a base for high-quality tea raw materials. This is because Sichuan's geographical location is special, and its temperature, humidity, altitude and soil are suitable for tea growth, but its deep-processing capacity is not strong. The intersection of 30° north latitude and the geographical Hu Huanyong Line is in Chengdu. Chengdu is the “Sky Eye”, “Sea Eye” and “Heart” of western China. The Sichuan Basin and the Tarim Basin form a natural Taiji diagram of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Warm, humid air from the Indian Ocean enters the Sichuan Basin through the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon. The Sichuan Basin has 1,409 rivers and is an outflow basin, a green basin and a basin of life, with relatively high humidity, relatively high temperature and moderate altitude. This kind of inland maritime climate is rare. In 2012, Sichuan Province had more than 120 counties (cities and districts) planting tea, with a total tea garden area of 4 million mu (about 27 hectares), total tea output reaching 160,000 tons, and the comprehensive output value of the tea industry exceeding 10 billion yuan. Sichuan tea brands such as Zhuyeqing and Xufu have ranked among the top tea enterprises in the country. The tea garden area and tea output both rank 2nd in the country, accounting for 10.98% and 11.40% of the national total respectively; tea output value was 2.17 billion yuan, and the comprehensive total output value of tea was 10 billion yuan, ranking 4th in the country. As for the downstream product of tea——tea tasting in teahouses, in Sichuan's streets and alleys, it is everywhere, and both men and women drink tea, which is rare nationwide. Sichuan tea is not only an important domestic raw material for high-quality tea, but Sichuan is also an important national tea consumption market, enjoying high market reputation and consumer recognition.

(II) The industrial development foundation is relatively good, but there are few national-level leading enterprises

Sichuan tea is mainly distributed in the mountainous and hilly areas around the basin with a relatively good ecological environment. Tea tree variety resources are rich and tea product types are numerous, especially the most suitable area for famous and excellent green tea. There are now more than 40 improved varieties at or above the provincial level being planted, and famous and excellent early tea ranks first in the country. Sichuan tea has rich varieties. Among the country's nine major tea categories of green tea, yellow tea, dark tea, white tea, oolong tea, black tea, scented tea, compressed tea and health tea, except for oolong tea and white tea, all other varieties are included in Sichuan tea; moreover, it is also the main production area of Tibetan tea and border tea. In terms of tea leaf form, Sichuan tea also includes tea in various shapes such as strip-shaped and needle-shaped, as well as crafted tea, which can fully meet consumers' diverse, high-quality and personalized needs. In particular, health products such as tartary buckwheat tea developed in recent years have been put on the market and are deeply favored by a broad range of users. At present, there are already 29 provincial-level key leading enterprises in tea agricultural industrialization represented by Xianzhi Zhujian and Longdu Xiangming, and 3 national-level key leading enterprises represented by Zhuyeqing and Xufu Tea Industry, ranking among the top tea enterprises in the country with relatively large market influence, but there are few national-level leading backbone enterprises.