Scientific Farming Paves the Road to Prosperity, Joining Hands with Neighbors to Build a Moderately Prosperous Life

    Liu Yuanshu is an ordinary farming woman from Dongtai Community, Wanggezhuang Subdistrict. Since 1992, when she took the lead in the village to start growing Laoshan tea, over the years she has overcome difficulties and actively studied and applied science and technology. She successively succeeded in experimenting with cutting techniques for new tea varieties, the roasting process for Longjing tea, and other technologies, and obtained a green certificate. Hard work brought the joy of harvest. Liu Yuanshu expanded her small tea garden of 3 mu at that time to its current size of 80 mu, with assets of 2 million, 32 employees, and an annual tea production of 30 tons, a comprehensive organic tea farm integrating planting, processing, and machinery. Her tea farm reached pollution-free standards in 2001, was named a Longjing tea breeding demonstration base by the district forestry bureau in 2002, and was named a women's agricultural standardized production demonstration base by Qingdao in 2004. The tea produced and made by the tea farm was rated as high-quality tea in the 2002 province-wide famous and excellent tea evaluation, won first prize in the 6th Laoshan District green tea evaluation, was designated as a designated product of the 2nd Laoshan Tea Festival in 2005, and was rated as a consumer-satisfaction unit in Laoshan District in 2006.

    Liu Yuanshu's family has five members, with elders above and children below. More than ten years ago, her husband worked in a factory, with low wages that were not paid for years, while the children's school fees, the elders' medical expenses, and the whole family's living expenses all had to be paid, making the economy very difficult. Liu Yuanshu was determined to escape hardship by growing tea. With her husband's support, in 1992 she borrowed 1,000 yuan from relatives to buy tea seeds, planting her bond with Laoshan tea. However, due to a lack of technology, in the second year after sowing, the tea plants all withered and died from disease, and the already unwealthy family fell into debt. Just when Liu Yuanshu was about to cry without tears, she attended a tea planting training class organized by the women's federation. Through systematic study, she understood a great deal of knowledge about tea planting and processing, understood the reason for her first planting failure, and deeply appreciated the importance of scientific planting. So she intensified her efforts to supplement her scientific and technical knowledge of tea planting, attended training classes organized by the women's federation many times, and bought books such as Soil Management and Fertilization of Tea Gardens. She worked during the day and studied at night, mastering a large amount of tea planting knowledge. The next year, Liu Yuanshu started again and sowed tea seeds once more. Relying on scientific and technical knowledge, Liu Yuanshu tasted the sweet fruit of harvest, and her tea finally survived successfully.

Tea planting and processing is hard labor. With the unique simplicity and tenacity of a farm woman, Liu Yuanshu was not afraid of toil, rising early and returning late, spending all day either working in the tea fields or leaning by the stove roasting tea. Hand-roasting tea is the hardest work: getting up at four in the morning to pick tea, then after coming back and drying it, immediately starting to roast it. In the first few years, because the facilities were relatively simple, the tea had to be roasted on an ordinary iron wok. Limited by the height of the stove, when roasting tea she could neither stand nor sit, and could only bend over the edge of the wok, staying bent for three or four hours at a time, often with back pain so severe she could not straighten up. Because the fresh tea leaves picked that day could not be left overnight, in order to ensure the quality of the finished roasted tea, she sometimes had to work continuously for several days and nights, unable to get a good sleep at all. Especially in summer, while others rested, she had to roast tea under the heat of the stove, with blisters burned onto her hands and calluses worn on them, and her body gradually growing thinner through repeated physical exhaustion. Even working this hard and fast, Liu Yuanshu still felt there was not enough time. Because she not only had to pick and roast tea, but also, in order to improve her roasting skills, often had to go out to visit and study, and participate in tea-roasting competitions organized by municipal and district agricultural units, so as to identify her own shortcomings and keep improving. Time after time, her tea-roasting skills became more and more advanced. In order to improve efficiency and also save expenses, Liu Yuanshu, according to her own ideas, had her husband, who worked as a machine repairman, build her a tea-roasting machine. The same machine cost half as much as buying one outside. When neighboring tea farmers heard about it, they came one after another to Liu Yuanshu and her husband, asking for help to build one too. Liu Yuanshu had a sudden inspiration and encouraged her husband simply to resign from his factory job and set up a mechanical processing workshop in the tea farm, specializing in the processing research of tea machinery, and applied for a patent. Through the joint efforts of the couple, they built the first tea farm in the north integrating tea machinery manufacturing.

Hard work brought abundant fruits. After several years of effort, Liu Yuanshu not only increased her income but also accumulated rich experience. In order to expand the scale and embark on a path of scientific and standardized development, Liu Yuanshu officially registered and established Luxianchun Tea Farm in 2001, and it was recognized by the provincial agriculture department as a pollution-free tea farm. In 2002, she also conducted cutting experiments on high-quality tea seedlings such as Longjing 43# and Longjing Changye, achieving success; she invested 400,000 yuan to contract 300 mu of land and establish a demonstration base, carried out irrigation, greening, and improvement and renovation of water, fields, and roads, and at the same time successively hired tea artisans from Hangzhou, Rizhao, and other places for guidance. In 2003, the tea farm was rated as a women's science and technology demonstration base by the district women's federation. In 2004, she invested another 300,000 yuan to expand the factory buildings, update equipment, and expand the production area. Following the enterprise development approach of "surviving by product quality, developing through brand innovation," she carried out standardized management and total quality management, ensured product quality, created her own tea brand, and was rated as an agricultural standardized demonstration base by the municipal women's federation. In 2005, at the 2nd Laoshan Tea Festival, Luxianchun tea became a designated product of the tea festival. Because she insisted on winning by quality and operating with integrity, in 2006 the tea farm was rated as a consumer-satisfaction unit. Liu Yuanshu herself was honored with titles such as national "Double Study, Double Compare" female expert. As a "strong woman," Liu Yuanshu did not relax her responsibility to her family. Her family is harmonious, husband and wife are harmonious, she respects the elders, educates the children, and the whole family is happy together. In 2006, they were rated as one of the top ten civilized families of Laoshan District.