Tea is more charming than spring breezes. Fengyi Village of Tongyuan Town is now a sea of lush tea trees stretching across rolling hills and exuding an intoxicating aroma. The tea plantations, Moon Lake and Fengshan Mountain weave together a picturesque landscape. In recent years, this town has leveraged its profound tea culture to advance industrial growth and rural prosperity, and forge a path for tea-culture-tourism integrated development based on the prosperity of its tea industry.

The tea plantations are as beautiful as parks, which pioneers the tea-culture-tourism integrated development.

Now at the Tea Plantation of Lianfeng Forest Farm in Fengyi, the tea farmers are busy plucking freshest tea buds in spring drizzles, and the picked tea leaves will be put on the market for sale soon after being withered, fixed, re-moistened and re-dried.

The spring tea harvest is a lively spring scene, and brings unforgettable experiences to visitors. By tapping into tea culture, Lianfeng Forest Farm has launched research-study activities such as tea-picking, traditional tea-making, and tea culture exhibitions to promote tea-tourism integrated development.

The traditional tea plantations’ transformation into beautiful parks and tourist attractions is attributed to local efforts to construct scenic walkways and viewing platforms, and introduce new business modes like “tea plus photography” and “tea plus cultural research and study”. In the future, this town will continue to extend its tea culture industry chain, build the tea brand “Fengyi Tea”, vigorously develop the tea culture industry, and upgrade the development philosophy “selling good tea” to “selling scenery and culture” to attract more visitors.

Tea Leaves’ transformation into “golden leaves” ignites tea-culture-tourism integrated development.

Along the Moon Lake, the new project “Future Fengyi Tea” is under construction. Once completed, it will feature tea-themed beverages, cafes, cuisines, utensils and accommodations and serve as a landmark culture tourism hub, where visitors will be able to experience tea-infused dining, lodging, shopping and entertainment, and enjoy a holistic tea-themed journey.

Tea bridges farmers and tourists. Adhering to the concept to upgrade tea plantations and bases to “scenic areas”, this town has worked to created a tea culture-themed business mode integrating tourism, sightseeing, cultural experiences, health and wellness. This is a “tea industry +” development mode able to increase the tea industry’s efficiency, yields and incomes, transform the tea leaf into the “golden leaf”, drive rural revitalization and common prosperity, and turn the tea plantations into tea farmers’ “green banks”.