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A tea town infused with prosperity

Tag：A tea town infused with prosperity 2020-08-21 19:33

Fried, rolled and withered. Loose green leaves turn dark as the lingering aroma of tea spills from heated pots, filling the air of a workshop in the mountainous village of Tangping.

The process may look easy to a layperson but the ideal conditions such as timing and temperature are controlled by tea growers that take years if not decades of experience.

Wei Jiequn, 62, is a fourth-generation tea cultivator and resident of Tangping, which is located in Liubao town in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's Wuzhou city.

"Tea sustains my inner peace. When you are in a good mood, the tea you make will be tasty. If you lose your temper, the flavor will change," says Wei.

In 2017, Wei was named as a national-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage for her tea-processing technique.

Though machines have been widely used in processing tea, Wei says the skills involved in hand-making are "irreplaceable".

"The aroma can only be fully aroused through natural fermentation when the tea is processed by hand," she says.

"And the shapes of leaves are better when manually rolled."

The signature tea of Liubao became known outside the area through the waterways, by ships that carried the tea across the Pearl River, finally setting off on its overseas voyage from Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The trade route was known as the "tea boat road".

Local records show that this famed variety has a 1,500-year history, and its popularity reached the peak during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Liubao tea was given in tribute to Qing emperor Jiaqing.

Many Guangdong laborers who emigrated to Southeast Asia in the 19th century used the tea as a drink to counter humid and hot weather. It was particularly welcomed among Chinese miners.

A collectively owned tea factory was established in Liubao in 1972. Four years later, Wei, then 18 years old, began to work there. She met her future husband, who became head of the factory.

Tea was not only the matchmaker for their romance and marriage but also the witness to their toughness. A fire broke out in the factory in 1986, and the huge loss led to its bankruptcy.

The couple returned to Tangping. They kept collecting samples of old Liubao tea-some were decades old-and further studied processing techniques. Once fermented, good-quality dark tea can be stored for years.

"Times are changing, but we never worry that people will lose interest in our tea as long as we keep working to ensure its high quality," Wei says.

Nevertheless, the mundane work, no matter how rich a tradition, may not attract everyone.

Two of the couple's three daughters have opted to work in cities. The youngest daughter, Shi Rufei, joined the family business in 2006, after finishing junior high school.

"When I was a kid, I followed my grandfather in picking herbs for traditional medicine in the mountains," Shi says.

"Herbs, including tea, are part of my everyday life. I can't turn away from my family duties."

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