Chongqing - In this vlog post themed on Laoying Tea grown in the mountains of Wuxi County in northeastern Chongqing, James Alexander explores the Chaxiang Xiaoyuan Plantation in Pulian Township and learns more about the background story and future ambitions behind this name card product.

Ancient tea transformed into a modern brand

Pulian Township in Wuxi County is home to the famous brand known widely as Laoying Tea. It has the largest production land area in Southwest China, with 3,300 acres spread between companies and rural households. Nestled upon the mountain slopes overlooking deep valleys in Northwest Chongqing, there are over two thousand trees over a century old and ten dated over a millennium.

Laoying tea is picked from various camphor trees called the litsea coreana, and production of this tea can be traced back as far as the Warring States Period(475 BC- 221 BC). The name Laoying itself means eagle or raptor in Chinese and originates from the fact seeds need to be ingested before they can grow into new saplings.

Although Laoying tea has been consumed for over a thousand years, it is only in recent years the brand has undergone expansion towards an industrial scale, a development that has reaped considerable dividends for the local rural population. This cause has been enhanced thanks to Chongqing Municipality listing the necessary skills in producing tea as an intangible cultural heritage.

In addition to tea production in the Wuxi countryside, the emergence of Laoying as a major industry has driven a new wave of rural tourism in the area, with city dwellers coming to visit the new Laoying Tea Intangible Culture Inheritance and Experience Hall, coupled with stays at guesthouses and restaurants.

Trade and tourism leading path forwards

The height of tea picking season comes in the month of April, and this offers the best opportunity to experience the process of making tea in the Experience Hall when inheritors teach the key steps involved, such as cooking the leaves to visitors and groups of school children.

At other times throughout the year, people are welcome to sample the wide variety of Laoying Tea products and learn about the associated history and multiple health benefits, which include relief from coughs and excess phlegm, liver protection, and the effect of dispelling summer heat from the body.

In the recent past, Laoying Tea has gained more attention nationwide thanks to active participation in industry events, such as the 2023 Production and Match-Making Conference for National Branded, Premium, and New Agri-Products, hosted by Shandong Province in the previous month of April. During the event, hordes of visitors expressed interest in sampling the products and negotiating potential sales.

As a result, Wuxi plans to increase the scale of production to meet the anticipated growth in demand. The county is expected to invest 300 million yuan with private enterprise and expand the plantation area to 8,250 acres, with a projected total revenue goal of 500 million yuan per year.