Migrant Worker Returns to Xishui, Guizhou, to Revive the Ancient Tea Tree Economy

Zhou Zongsheng, a migrant worker from Guizhou who once worked in Anxi, Fujian, never imagined that he would go from being a poor boy from a mountain village to a senior tea taster, leading local farmers to prosperity.

"When I went to Anxi to work in 1998, I was small in stature, and no construction site would take me. It was only through an introduction that I got into a Tieguanyin processing factory as an apprentice," Zhou Zongsheng said. During his 10 years in Anxi, he not only mastered the Tieguanyin production process, but also learned skills such as tea seedling cultivation and cutting, tea processing and tasting.

In 2005, Zhou Zongsheng, by then an excellent tea maker, returned home for Spring Festival for the first time. When he saw the buds growing on the wild ancient tea trees in his hometown were emerald green and robust, even better than the buds of tea trees grown with artificial fertilizing, he felt a surge of joy.

"At that moment, the idea of returning home to develop the ancient tea tree industry was born," Zhou Zongsheng said. In the following years, the actions of villagers in his hometown, who casually cut down century-old ancient tea trees for firewood, made him even more restless. In 2008, Zhou Zongsheng, who had already achieved success in Anxi, disregarded his family's opposition and resolutely returned home with years of savings to start a business, preparing to "light up" his hometown's ancient tea tree economy with his own efforts.

Zhou Zongsheng's hometown is located in Xishui County, Guizhou, at the junction of Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing, a mountainous area suitable for the growth of ancient tea trees. According to preliminary statistics from the Xishui County Forestry Bureau, the county has 233,759 ancient tea trees. Among them, 100,369 ancient tea trees have a diameter at breast height greater than 10 cm, and 9,311 ancient tea trees are over 100 years old; the oldest ancient tea tree is 550 years old.

"To protect the ancient tea trees, I spend 40,000 yuan each year to hire villagers to protect 30,000 mu of ancient tea trees in the mountains. At the same time, I try to use the methods of pan-firing oolong tea and Tieguanyin to make ancient tea tree products, hoping to drive the protection of ancient tea trees through industry," Zhou Zongsheng said.

But the trial production process was full of hardships. Zhou Zongsheng said that in the first 4 years of starting the business, because he could not find the right method to develop ancient tea trees, he lost nearly 2 million yuan and, because of building a factory, took on more than 1 million yuan in high-interest loans.

The turning point came in 2012. A businessman from out of town who had accidentally tasted Zhou Zongsheng's ancient tea tree products suggested that he develop black tea products. In order to make a pot of excellent black tea, Zhou Zongsheng returned to Fujian again, studied black tea production methods in Wuyishan, and successfully produced Xishui ancient tea tree black tea products that won the "Special Gold Award at the Third China International Tea Industry and Tea Art Expo."

The improvement in enterprise efficiency drove up local tea purchases. "In 2012, my tea company alone purchased more than 3,000 jin of dried ancient tea tree tea from surrounding villagers. This year, it purchased more than 7,000 jin of dried tea, and for fresh tea leaves alone, it paid villagers 760,000 yuan," Zhou Zongsheng said.

Mu Bing, deputy director of the Xishui County Forestry Bureau, said that in recent years, driven by Zhou Zongsheng's industry, 7 companies have been established one after another in Xishui County to develop the ancient tea tree industry, with an annual output value of about 50 million yuan, driving more than 2,000 villagers to pick and process tea, and increasing per capita income by more than 1,200 yuan from picking fresh tea leaves alone.

Villager Lu Peng told reporters that this year he picked more than 420 jin of wild mountain ancient tea tree fresh leaves from a mountain at an altitude of more than 1,200 m and sold them for more than 20,000 yuan, accounting for one third of his family's annual income. "Now that ancient tea trees are valuable, many villagers have also put up fences to protect them, and from time to time during the day they go up the mountain to wander around, afraid that someone will steal them."

In order to sustainably protect and develop ancient tea tree resources, in recent years Zhou Zongsheng has also invested nearly 500,000 yuan to cut and breed more than 2 million ancient tea tree seedlings, and successfully trial-planted more than 1,000 mu of ancient tea trees.

Now, Zhou Zongsheng is preparing to try e-commerce marketing, integrated tea tourism and other methods to expand the development space of Xishui ancient tea trees, turning what was once "firewood for the stove" into the villagers' "tree of prosperity."