Li Houqiang: let the world consume famous Chinese tea

Tea drinking in China has a long history, some people think that it originated from Shennong in ancient times, others think that it originated from the Zhou Dynasty or Qin and Han dynasties. According to the research of relevant scholars, tea artificial cultivation originated from Mengding Mountain in Sichuan Province, which is the earliest in the world and has a history of more than 2000 years. Chang Kui of the Jin Dynasty wrote in the Annals of the State of Huayang: "King Wu of Zhou cut down, actually won the teacher of Bashu, and wrote Yu Shangshu." Dan, lacquer, tea, honey. All pay tribute, that is, in 1066 BC, tea was already used as a tribute in the Bashu area. Gu Yanwu, one of the "three great Confucian scholars" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said in the Rizhiro, "since the Qin people took Shu, there has been a matter of drinking tea." The implication is that before the Qin people entered Shu, today's Sichuan was known to drink tea. In addition, Sichuan is also the birthplace of the ancient tea-horse road in China, and the production place of Tibetan tea and border tea in China. In this sense, Sichuan tea is the epitome of Chinese tea.

I. the Historical influence of Chinese Tea in the World

As an international channel of economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in ancient times, the Silk Road opened the window of trade between China and the West, provided a platform for commodity trade, and spread Chinese tea to the West. When Arab merchants bought silk in Datang, they also brought back magical tea and shipped them to Persia. At about the same time, Turkish businessmen bartered tea on the Chinese border. In 851 AD, North African businessman Suleiman wrote specifically about tea in his book Journey to India and China. Thus it can be seen that the Silk Road made Chinese tea popular in Islamic countries in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty, as the economic and cultural center of the world at that time, was also the object of study in Japan, which was separated by a strip of water. The spread and development of Japanese tea, from planting, manufacturing to drinking, are all related to Japanese monks who came to study in China in the Tang and Song dynasties. In the process of learning Buddhism in China, Japanese monks also spread tea culture to Japan. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, famous Japanese monks such as Chengcheng and Konghai brought tea seeds from China, planted them widely in Japan, and carried forward Chinese tea culture in Japan.

In the 38th year of Jiajing of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty (1559 AD), the Venetian writer Ramaswo wrote "Chinese Tea" and "Voyage and Travel", which introduced tea culture to Europe for the first time. The following year, Croz, the Portuguese, the first Catholic missionary to come to China, brought the tea knowledge he learned in China back to Europe. At the same time, his fellow sailors brought back tea directly from China. In the 17th century, Chinese tea became popular in the West. In 1607, the first box of tea arrived in Amsterdam by the Dutch East India Company and became the most fashionable drink in the Netherlands. In 1618, Chinese diplomats brought several boxes of tea as a precious gift to the Russian czar, and tea entered Russia from then on. It then affected the entire Slavic people and became a tea-drinking nation; in 1636, tea spread to France; in 1650, tea spread to England. In 1662, Princess Catherine of Portugal, who was fond of drinking tea, married in England and became the first queen of tea drinking in England. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch East India Company almost monopolized the operation of tea in Europe. After the 18th century, Britain won the maritime hegemony confrontation with the Netherlands, the Dutch East India Company subsequently went bankrupt, and the British East India Company replaced its monopoly on the tea trade. The company earns more than 1 million pounds a year in the tea trade, accounting for 90 per cent of total commercial profits and 10 per cent of UK treasury revenues. At the same time, British trade with China has expanded rapidly. The annual output of Chinese tea reaches 18 million jin, and the value of goods accounts for more than 90% of the total export, making it a well-deserved industry leader. The export of Chinese tea not only brought huge revenue to Britain, but also burdened it with a huge trade deficit. Britain exported opium to China to balance this trade deficit, and then the Opium War broke out. The defeat of the Opium War forced China to open more trade ports and led to the loss of tea seedlings abroad. Britain vigorously developed tea cultivation in its colonies of India and Sri Lanka. Subsequently, China lost its position as the only supplier to the world tea market. Chinese tea, which was very popular for a time, never regained its glory.

II. The current world status of Chinese tea

Just as Chinese is the most populous language in the world, tea is the most populous plant drink in the world. Output and scale have gone up, but the economic value is far from enough. Sichuan is the birthplace of tea in the world, and Mengdingshan is the first place to grow tea artificially. Sichuan has the largest original output of tea and is the raw material supply for some tea factories outside the province. Sichuan has the largest number of teahouses in the country and the largest number of tea guests. Sichuan Basin is a green basin and a basin of thousands of rivers, which is most suitable for growing tea. Therefore, it can be said that the world tea looks at China, and Chinese tea looks at Sichuan.

(1) Sichuan has a special geographical location, but it is mainly the export of tea raw materials.

Sichuan is not only one of the main tea producing areas in China, but also the base of high-quality tea raw materials. This is because Sichuan has a special geographical location, temperature, humidity, height and soil are suitable for tea growth, but the intensive processing ability is not strong. The intersection of latitude 30 °N and geography Hu Huanyong curve is in Chengdu, which is the "heavenly eye", "sea eye" and "heart" of western China. Sichuan Basin and Tarim Basin constitute the natural Taiji map of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Indian Ocean warm and humid air enters Sichuan Basin through the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon. Sichuan Basin has 1409 rivers, which is an outflow basin, a green basin and a life basin with high humidity, high temperature and moderate elevation. This inland maritime climate is rare. In 2012, tea was planted in more than 120 counties (cities and districts) in Sichuan Province, with a total area of 4 million mu (about 27 hectares), a total output of 160000 tons and a comprehensive output value of more than 10 billion yuan. Chuyeqing, Xufu and other Sichuan tea brands have been among the forefront of national tea enterprises. Tea garden area and tea output ranked second in the country, accounting for 10.98% and 11.40% of the country's total, respectively; the output value of tea was 2.17 billion yuan, and the comprehensive total output value of tea was 10 billion yuan, ranking fourth in the country. As far as tea tasting in teahouses, the downstream product of tea, is found everywhere in Sichuan, both men and women are tea, which is rare in the whole country. Sichuan tea is not only the main raw material of domestic important high-quality tea, but also an important tea consumption market in China, which enjoys a high market reputation and consumer recognition.

(2) the foundation of industrial development is good, but there are few national leading enterprises.

Sichuan tea is mainly distributed in the mountainous and hilly areas around the basin with good ecological environment, with rich tea variety resources and many kinds of tea products, especially the most suitable area for famous and high-quality green tea. At present, there are more than 40 excellent varieties planted at or above the provincial level, and the famous morning tea ranks first in the country. Sichuan tea is rich in varieties. Among the nine major tea categories, such as green tea, yellow tea, black tea, white tea, green tea, black tea, scented tea, pressed tea and key tea, with the exception of green tea and white tea, other varieties of tea are among Sichuan tea; moreover, it is also the main producing area of Tibetan tea and border tea. As far as the form of tea is concerned, Sichuan tea also has strip-shaped, needle-shaped and other shapes of tea and craft tea, which can fully meet the diversified, high-quality and personalized needs of consumers. In particular, Tartary buckwheat tea and other health products developed in recent years have been put on the market, which are favored by the majority of users. At present, there are 29 provincial key leading enterprises of tea agricultural industrialization represented by Xianzhi Zhujian and Longdu Xiangming, and 3 national key leading enterprises represented by Zhuyeqing and Xufu tea industry, which are among the forefront of tea enterprises in the country. the market influence is greater, but the national leading backbone enterprises are less.