Lingyun Baihao Tea Variety Characteristics and Origin Introduction

Growing Techniques Jan 1, 1970 0 views

At the Lingyun production line of Guangzhou Jingcha Food Co., Ltd. in Dashan Tun, Anxiang Village, Jiayou Town, Lingyun County, workers are busy sorting the freshly processed finished black tea. Some are packing, some are busy weighing and registering for warehouse dispatch, and the products are being prepared for loading and transport to Guangzhou. The company manager said: Since Jingcha Food Company began production and entered the market last year, demand has exceeded supply, and all products are exported to the EU. Huang Daxiong, general manager of Guangxi Langfu Organic Tea Co., Ltd., laid out his tea-making plans: Lingyun tea has already entered a model of large-scale operation and market access system management. What is needed now is to develop high-tech, high-end tea products based on organic tea, develop mid-range products based on pollution-free tea gardens, follow the path of group-based development, and make Lingyun Baihao Tea a flagship tea product of China.

Innovative Mechanisms Produce Guangxi's Largest Tea County

According to "Records of Famous Chinese Teas": Lingyun Baihao Tea is a historically famous tea, created before the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, and originally produced in Lingyun County. "Draft of Guangxi General Annals" states: Baihao Tea... the larger trees are two zhang tall, the smaller ones seven to eight chi, the tender leaves are like longan leaves but thinner, hence the name. They are generally wild. In 1937, "Records of Guangxi Specialty Products" stated: Baihao Tea, the larger trees are two zhang tall, the smaller ones seven chi, the tender leaves are like silver needles, the old leaves are like longan leaves but thinner, all have white down, hence the name, and they are generally wild. "Collection of Fine Tea Tree Varieties of China," "Records of Chinese Tea," and "Selected Famous and Excellent Chinese Teas" all contain records of Lingyun Baihao Tea. This is a precious treasure that nature has bestowed upon Lingyun. The people of Lingyun seized the wealth that belonged to them and cultivated it from wild tea trees into the leading industry by which the people of Lingyun move toward prosperity today. As early as the Hongzhi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming (1488), the Han ancestors from Longxi Tun, Baima Village, Sicheng Town, who had migrated from the Central Plains, opened up Lingyun's first tea garden on the earthen slopes surrounded by large rocky mountains, and then gradually promoted planting throughout the county. In the 1930s, Baihao Tea harvested and processed by local farmers using traditional methods began to be sold to Hong Kong, China and Macao, China. Beginning in the 1950s, it was exported to countries such as Algeria and Morocco. From then on, Lingyun's tea development went through several upsurges.

In the early 1960s, Baihao Tea began to attract government attention, and in 1963 government action was taken to establish the state-owned Yuhong Tea Farm in Namei Tun, Yuhong Yao Ethnic Township, Lingyun County, with an area of 1,050 mu. Farmers in the two townships of Yuhong and Jiayou also gradually began planting tea.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lingyun welcomed a second peak in tea planting. With the continuous deepening of reform and opening up and economic development, the Lingyun County Party Committee and County People's Government developed 10,000 mu of barren hills at Weiling, at the border of Yangli Village in Jiayou Town and Panxian Village in Yuhong Township, and built a 10,000-mu high-yield tea demonstration farm. The county also issued a series of policies to encourage farmers, government cadres and government units to open wasteland and plant tea. The county coordinated uniformly, integrated funds for poverty alleviation, forestry, land, civil affairs and other areas, and invested them in developing tea planting. Government units successively established economic entities with tea as the main focus, and civil affairs departments also established various civil affairs relief entities. The government gave preferential support through policies and funds in finance, poverty alleviation, forestry and other areas, enabling Baihao Tea to develop rapidly. The planting range gradually expanded from Yuhong and Jiayou to Luolou, Shali, Chaoli and other townships, and the area grew from 15,000 mu in 1985 to more than 30,000 mu in 1990. After 1990, Lingyun County proposed a development approach of vigorously developing tea, further increased support for tea, and in the nationwide upsurge of developing village-level collective economies, among the 110 villages (streets) in the county seeking project approval and applying for projects, 70% chose tea.

Entering 2000, the Lingyun County Party Committee and County People's Government proposed the development approach of building China's Baihao Tea production base. Successive Party committees and governments changed personnel but not the approach, passing the baton from one group of leaders to the next. By 2006, the county's tea mountain area reached 105,000 mu, of which 62,000 mu had passed national pollution-free certification, 2,700 mu had passed organic certification by the EU International Ecological Certification Center, and 5,300 mu had passed organic conversion certification by the China Agricultural Quality Certification Center. In 2006, dry tea output was 2,620 tons and output value was 78.78 million yuan. A total of 50,428 people from 11,260 households in 8 townships (towns) achieved poverty alleviation and prosperity through tea production. Tea planting area, total output value, average tea price, and per capita net income of tea farmers all ranked at the forefront among Guangxi's tea counties. In 2006, it received the title of Guangxi's Largest Tea County awarded by the autonomous region.

Science and Technology Leadership Gives Rise to Multiple International Brands and an All-Around Champion

After 1999, Lingyun Baihao Tea underwent a scientific and technological revolution. At that time, the county Party committee and county government proposed cultivating and developing tea as Lingyun's pillar industry. They successively invited experts and professors from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Anhui Agricultural College, Guilin Tea Research Institute, Guangxi Vocational and Technical College, Guangxi Tea Society and other institutions to visit Lingyun many times to inspect and guide Lingyun Baihao Tea production. Through scientific demonstration by experts and professors, the approach to developing tea further matured, and the prospects for developing Lingyun Baihao Tea were repositioned. What had the greatest potential was that Lingyun Baihao Tea, with its unique internal qualities, had strong prospects among international tea varieties. Thus, Baihao Tea attracted great attention from tea experts across the country. A group of well-known experts gathered in Lingyun to carry out research on Baihao Tea planting, production and processing. Professor Wang Guangzhi of the Tea Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Professor Wang Dengliang of South China Agricultural University, and Du Xiangge, Ph.D. of Peking University, visited Lingyun several times to personally guide tea processing technology. The China Association of Old Science and Technology Workers also made Lingyun a tea scientific research base. With the help of experts at all levels, Lingyun Baihao Tea was used to successfully research and develop six major tea series products: green tea, black tea, white tea, yellow tea, dark tea and oolong tea, making it the only tea tree variety in China and even Asia capable of simultaneously processing all six major tea categories, truly deserving the title of all-around champion. By 2004, more than 20 series products in six major categories had been researched and developed. Among them, high-end green tea products included Baihao Wang, Baihao Yinzhen, Lingluo Wang and Special-Grade Lingluochun; black tea included Jinhou Hongtiao, Hongluo Wang and red broken tea specially for export; white tea included Baihao Yueya and Bai Mudan; yellow tea included Huangya; oolong tea included Lingchun Oolong; dark tea included Baihao Yinzhuang and others, thereby breaking the previous situation of single-product specialization and low quality. With products developed and quality improved, Lingyun Baihao Tea began to attract people's attention: in 1999 it won the title of famous and excellent tea at the Third National "Zhongcha Cup"; in 2000 it won the black tea gold award and green tea first prize at the Second International Famous Tea Evaluation of the Korean Tea Association; in 2001 it achieved excellent results of "three golds, two silvers and one excellence" at the Third International Famous Tea Evaluation, and in the same year was recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture as a famous-brand product; in 2002, at the China Wuhu International Tea @#@119@#@, black tea won a gold award and green tea won a silver award, and at the Guangzhou Expo it won a green tea gold award. In September of the same year it passed the stage acceptance inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture, and its tea products passed acceptance inspection by the regional Agriculture Department and the Regional Technical Supervision Bureau. In December, after testing by the National Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, the "Baguil Lingyun" brand tea series products were certified as a "China Food Safety Assurance Brand." In 2003 it was certified by the Ministry of Agriculture as pollution-free agricultural products and was also rated as a Guangxi famous-brand product. The products of the Langfu base passed organic tea certification by the EU International Ecological Certification Center. In 2004, Lingyun Baihao Tea Industry Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, was also rated as an autonomous-region-level leading enterprise in poverty alleviation. In 2005, "Baguil Lingyun" brand products were designated by the regional people's congress organ as special tea for the People's Hall. Baihao Tea became the tea variety that won the most gold awards for Guangxi in various competitions. In planting management, starting in 1990, cultivation, care and fertilization were carried out entirely according to pollution-free standards. After 3 years of effort, in June 2001 it smoothly passed national acceptance inspection and was rated as one of China's first batch of pollution-free tea production demonstration counties.

In processing, processing equipment was replaced, and in packaging, emphasis was placed on effectiveness, upgrading the grade and enhancing market competitiveness. In particular, Langfu Organic Tea Co., Ltd. was certified by the EU as organic tea in 2004, was certified by the EU in 2006 as an export inspection-exempt product, and this year also obtained titles such as Guangxi Famous Trademark.

In the 6 years from 2000 to 2006, Lingyun Baihao Tea achieved three major leaps: tea gardens transformed from extensive type to standardized type, varieties transformed from a single type to diversified series product development, and market development advanced from pollution-free products to high-tech organic products. Lingyun Baihao Tea directly entered the EU international market. With the imperial sword of brand recognition, Lingyun Baihao Tea @#@136@#@ has excellent prospects.

Culture Sets the Stage and the Economy Performs, Singing Out China's Home of Baihao Tea

Lingyun is an ancient cultural city with nearly a thousand years of history as an ancient prefectural seat. It has rich cultural deposits. The people of Lingyun not only inherited the cultural thread of the ancient Sicheng Prefecture, but also carried forward the spiritual essence bestowed upon Baihao Tea by the great mountains. As the fame of tea expanded, the people of Lingyun cleverly combined the tea industry with tourism, investing more than 5 million yuan to improve the tourism facilities of the Weiling 10,000-mu tea mountain scenic area, build pavilions and towers such as Tea King Pavilion, Tea Sage Pavilion and Tea Immortal Pavilion, and open an eco-tourism resort scenic area integrating tea garden sightseeing, photography, tea picking, tea making, tea tasting, tourism shopping, eating farm meals, listening to ethnic folk songs, watching tea art performances, and enjoying a natural oxygen bar. In April 2004, the Lingyun Tea Mountain Pyramid Scenic Area was awarded by the National Tourism Administration as a national agricultural sightseeing tourism demonstration site. In November 2006, the new Party committee and government of Lingyun County proposed development goals of building China's Baihao Tea production base, a special agricultural product processing base, an ecological and environmental protection demonstration base, and a tourism and leisure resort, still placing tea development in a prominent position.

In order to raise the profile of Lingyun Baihao Tea, in September 2003 the Lingyun County Party Committee and government built a giant teapot beside the Sishui River in the county seat and in front of the tourism shopping plaza, with a base 4 m high, a pot 8.18 m high, and an inner pot diameter of 3.18 m. A water spray pipe was installed inside the pot, and water pours from the tilted spout into two large teacups with a diameter of 3.18 m and a height of 1.9 m. It is the largest teapot in the world to date, the Number One Teapot under Heaven. At the same time, the county holds various large-scale tea events every year to promote Lingyun Baihao Tea and build tea hometown culture. Since 2003, it has successively held large-scale events such as the "Ten-Thousand-Person Tea Tasting Convention," the bonfire party for the opening of "Guangxi's First Tea Street," and the "Spring Tea Challenge." Starting in 2005, the Baihao Tea Culture Festival has been held on April 22 each year. This year, activities will also be held in the Tea Mountain Pyramid Scenic Area, including a spring tea harvesting and tea sacrifice ceremony, tea garden visitor interaction, tea evaluation, investment promotion negotiation meetings, and a large-scale on-water live song-and-dance performance. With the support of the Guangxi Tea Society, during this year's Baihao Tea Culture Festival, the Third Guangxi Tea Challenge will be held in Lingyun, bringing together teas from all over Guangxi in Lingyun for a major quality competition. Tea experts at all levels will gather in Lingyun to take the pulse of Lingyun Baihao Tea's development.

Lingyun Baihao Tea Variety Characteristics and Origin Introduction

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