Guangshan Tea

Guangshan Tea

　　Guangshan has a long history of tea cultivation, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period, flourishing in the Tang and Song dynasties, and reaching its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The region boasts a profound tea culture and was once a renowned Huainan tea-producing area in ancient times. Lu Yu, the Tea Sage of the Tang Dynasty, noted in his Classic of Tea: “Among Huainan (teas), those from Guangzhou (with its seat in Guangshan) rank the highest,” and “the tea produced at Huangtougang in Guangshan County is comparable to that of Xiazhou.” Shen Kuo recorded in his Dream Pool Essays: “The Guangshan tea market in Guangzhou sold 307,216 jin of tea annually, generating revenue of 12,456 guan.” Despite wars and turmoil, the surviving Qing Dynasty tea gardens in Dashushan, adjacent to historic temples and monasteries (including the Tiantai sect’s ancestral temple, Jingju Temple), bear witness to the deep-rooted Buddhist tea culture of Guangshan.

Guangshan County has been designated as the “Hometown of Chinese Tea” by the National Forestry Administration and is one of the main production areas of Xinyang Maojian tea. Since the reform and opening-up, the Guangshan County Party Committee and County Government have made scientifically informed decisions based on local conditions, focusing their efforts on the tea industry and sparking a new wave of large-scale tea development. Related industries such as tea plantations, tea processing, tea markets, tea culture, and tea tourism have flourished, showcasing the Guangshan people’s approach of “growing tea nationwide, processing tea nationwide, buying and selling tea nationwide, and selling tea across the country.” After decades of hard work, the industry has achieved scale expansion, quality improvement, industrial upgrading, and enhanced profitability.

In 2008, the total tea plantation area in the county reached 162,000 mu, with 85,000 mu under harvest. Of these, 116,000 mu were seed-propagated tea gardens and 46,000 mu were clonal tea gardens; 108,000 mu were old tea gardens and 54,000 mu were young tea gardens. The annual output of dried tea was 3.2 million kg, with a total value of 208 million yuan. Tea production spanned 15 townships, mostly located in the low mountainous and hilly areas of the southern part of the county, forming a regional production pattern. The county had 108 tea processing enterprises, 2,560 sets of various tea-processing machinery, and an annual processing capacity of 14,000 tons. There were six tea trading markets with an annual transaction volume of 384 million yuan, and 160,000 people were engaged in tea-related activities. The county was home to three internationally award-winning premium teas—Xinyang Maojian, Cuizhufeng, and Saishan Yulian—as well as several well-known Henan tea brands such as “Liangting,” “Lantian Yuye,” “Sushan Chun,” and “Jiujialing.” The per capita tea income of farmers in the county’s tea-growing regions exceeded 1,800 yuan, reaching 2,300 yuan in star townships (areas) like Liangting and Jingju Temple. The tea industry has become a pillar sector for boosting the county’s economy, increasing farmers’ incomes, and promoting the development of new rural areas.