Villagers in Shidian county better off via tea-growing

In late spring, the newly-built resettlement site at the Jianshan village in southwest Yunnan’s Shidian County is surrounded by lush tea gardens, and the houses show typical Bulang and Yi ethnic features. 

With an elevation of 700-2,340 meters, the Jianshan village is home to 1,775 people, 989 of whom belong to the Bulang and Yi ethnic groups. The 40-hectare tea garden houses century-old tea trees, 500 years old at most. In recent years, Jianshan has rendered tea-growing into a way for sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

Dai Xuejiang is one of the advocates of tea-growing, who had worked as a migrant worker for years. Seeing the booming tea business back in 2015, Dai realized that the wild tea gardens in the village could have brought more income to the villagers if it were better run. Then he had himself trained in tea making in Xishuangbanna, south Yunnan. 

Returning from his training, Dai Xuejiang led the villagers in the drive of poverty relief. He processed tea with fine skills and sold tea online, while marketing the special tea Guangzhou and Kunming. In 2019, Dai help villagers in the village sell 15,000-kg tea, bringing an extra 5,000 yuan to each of 30 tea-making families.

"The two 400-year-old tea trees can produce 10 kilos of tea each spring, earning us an income of 20,000 yuan,” said Dai Xuejiang, adding most tea from the century-old trees is sold at 500 yuan per kilogram. In 2019, Dai sold around 500-kilo tea for locals, with the sales exceeding 200,000 yuan. 

More migrant villagers also join Dai in tea-making and tea branding, and now several Jianshan tea brands are visible in the market nationwide.

So far, two tea cooperatives and a tea shop have been set up in the village, bringing in more villagers into the tea business that involves picking, stir-frying, kneading and packaging. In 2019, the tea industry increased income for 200 families, ranging from 1000 to 10,000 yuan. 

"My family has a 1.3-hectare tea garden than brought us a yearly 10,000 yuan,” said Jiang Tiancai, a Bulang villager. 

Reporting by Li Jianguo and Yang Lijuan (Yunnan Net); trans-editing by Wang Shixue