The Tea Planting Story of Big Tea Grower Chen Shihong

    "Beautiful scenery on both banks of the Quanjiang River, men and women, young and old, busy picking tea. Tea leaves green all over the hills, the fragrance of tea intoxicates the villagers." This folk song is singing about Qiaotou Township, Guidong County, Chenzhou, Hunan. Chen Shihong, the township's big tea grower, amazed this writer even more. Now 50 years old, he had only one and a half years of schooling, yet he taught himself to success, has already earned an intermediate professional title as an agricultural technician, and was also named an "Outstanding Rural Science and Technology Practical Talent of Hunan Province."   

In 1999, in order to revitalize collective assets, the Party committee and government of Qiaotou Township decided after study to put the township tea farm, with a tea garden area of 100 mu, up for public auction and lease operation. After market analysis, Chen Shihong believed that tea is a natural green beverage, and that Qiaotou Township, with its fertile land, year-round swirling mist and babbling streams, sometimes bright sunshine, sometimes pouring rain, a large temperature difference between day and night, and abundant diffused light and ultraviolet rays, was an ideal place for developing pollution-free high-quality tea, and that the prospects for developing tea were very promising. Therefore, he did not hesitate to sign a lease contract with the township government. After leasing the tea farm, Chen Shihong threw himself wholeheartedly into managing the tea garden. Through a series of measures such as reclamation, fertilizing, pruning, and weeding, that year the tea plants grew thick, sturdy young buds, bringing the tea farm back to life.   

However, because the original tea garden's varieties had already aged, although Chen Shihong went out early and returned late and managed with great care, there was no way around it: the tea-picking cycle was too long, and the yield of the tea garden he had leased simply would not rise. Moreover, as market demand changed, people increasingly sought healthy organic tea. In 2002, by a chance opportunity, Chen Shihong met a boss named Huang Chenglong from the Fuzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Fujian Province. Because both loved tea as if it were their life, after only a few words they became partners, feeling they had met too late. Soon, Boss Huang personally delivered 430,000 seedlings of two fine varieties, Fuyun No. 6 and Baihao Zao, to Chen Shihong at the price of 0.13 yuan per plant, and Chen Shihong carried out variety improvement together with his fellow villagers. These two kinds of tea can sprout 6 times a year, and the tea-picking period is long, greatly increasing the tea garden's yield and profits.   

Chen Shihong's tea output went up, but compared with other brand-name teas, tea of the same weight sold for a much lower price. Chen Shihong suddenly understood: to raise the economic benefits of the tea garden, he had to run a processing factory well and rely on science and technology to process the tea and increase its added value. For this reason, Chen Shihong went to famous high-quality tea farms in Zhejiang, Fujian, and other places to visit and learn. He also paid his own way to study at Hunan Agricultural University for one month, specifically learning tea processing technology. He eagerly delved into knowledge of tea growing and tea making, studied dozens of publications about tea, and took a great many notes and reflections. Moved by Chen Shihong's sincerity, several highly respected professors from Hunan Agricultural University came in person to Chen Shihong's processing factory to demonstrate tea making on site. Under the guidance of famous teachers, Chen Shihong boldly reformed the tea-making process and formula. After countless trial productions, the tea he made was finally covered with white down and shaped like snow buds. The brewed tea was clear and bright, with a jade-green color. One sip of the tea left a lasting fresh fragrance, filled the mouth with saliva, and refreshed the heart and lungs.   

In order to further expand the tea industry and drive more people to develop tea production, Chen Shihong successively leased and contracted several tea farms, including those in Baishui Village, Hongqiao Village, and Xiadan Village in neighboring Qingquan Town, reaching an area of more than 600 mu. He also established the Qiaotou Tea Cooperative, developed 118 member households, and implemented unified seedlings, unified cultivation techniques, unified brand, and unified sales. Last year it arranged work for more than 200 surplus laborers and provided stable employment for more than 70 people. Under his leadership, in 2006 alone more than 500 households developed and cultivated 1,500 mu of organic tea. Villager Huang Yingzhi of Shijiao Group in Hongqiao Village, under Chen Shihong's hand-by-hand instruction in techniques, now grows 12 mu of tea and has an annual income of more than 50,000 yuan.   

In Chen Shihong's small Western-style building, Chen Shihong told this writer that in 2006 he produced a total of 16,000 jin of tea, with an average price reaching 34.3 yuan per market jin, and the highest price reaching 280 yuan per market jin; from tea alone he made a net profit of 120,000 yuan. In 2007, he again introduced 4 varieties from Fujian, Zhejiang, and other places, including Yuanxiao Lu, Fuding Dabai, Huang Guanyin, and Taiwan Tea No. 12. At present, the first batch of more than 600,000 seedlings has already arrived at his tea garden.