—— Interview with Huang Rongxiong, Chairman of Guilin Lijiang Tea Factory Co., Ltd.

The Earth is the home on which humanity relies for survival. In the past economic development process, it was inevitable that some development methods turned "green waters and lush mountains" into "gold mountains and silver mountains" and then consumed them. Today, under the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee, the scientific conclusion that "green waters and lush mountains are as valuable as gold and silver mountains" has gained deep public support. The establishment of the Lijiang Spring brand is the best proof of Huang Rongxiong's beautiful yearning for the natural green of Guilin's landscape, his unwavering commitment to green and healthy tea products, and his internalization of the Party Central Committee's guidance on China's ecological civilization construction.

The registration of the "Lijiang Spring" trademark in 2003 laid the foundation for the establishment of the Guilin Lijiang Tea Factory Co., Ltd. Over the years, the company has controlled the source, focused on product quality, and strictly controlled food safety. Its products have received high recognition from the industry and the public, winning honors such as "2008 Lijiang Spring series tea selected as the most trusted quality brand by consumers," "2010 Lijiang Cuilan won the Gold Award in the China Green Cup for Famous and Excellent Green Tea Evaluation," "2011 awarded the title of China's Quality Trusted Brand," and "2012 Lijiang Spring Special Grade Osmanthus Tea won the first prize in the second National Tea Evaluation of Guoyin Cup." Its founder, Huang Rongxiong, has successively become a member of the China Tea Circulation Association, a member of the China Tea Society, vice president of the Guangxi Tea Association, executive director of the Guangxi Tea Society, and president of the Guilin Tea Association. At the end of 1992, he was appointed as a tea engineer by the Guangxi Guilin Tea Factory, and in 2014, he was registered as an expert in the "Guangxi Tea Evaluation and Identification Expert Database" by the Guangxi Tea Society.

Establishing independent brands, great enterprises rise from the ground.

Because of his love for tea since childhood, Huang Rongxiong enrolled in the Mechanical Tea Processing major at Anhui Agricultural University in 1982. After graduation, he was assigned to work at the Guangxi Guilin Tea Factory, starting from the grassroots level, continuously learning tea processing skills, and working his way up from technician, workshop deputy director, director, supply and marketing section chief, to assistant factory director, eventually becoming the deputy secretary of the Party Committee. In the late 1990s, influenced by the national state-owned enterprise system reform, Huang Rongxiong chose to seek his own path, raising 100,000 yuan to establish the Guilin Lijiang Tea Processing Plant. With the joint efforts of all employees, the Guilin Lijiang Tea Factory's business continued to expand, gradually forming a complete production, supply, and sales chain.

Diligent people welcome spring early. Every spring is the busiest time for tea farmers, hence the saying in the tea industry that "pre-Ming tea is as precious as gold." In 2003, the "Lijiang Spring" trademark was registered, meaning the spring of Lijiang, symbolizing beauty and nature. At the same time, Huang Rongxiong keenly discovered that if tea farmers only harvested buds and leaves in large quantities during spring to produce green tea, the utilization rate would be low, and their income would drop significantly after spring. In response, Huang Rongxiong actively encouraged local tea farmers to rely on local resources and develop the tea industry according to local conditions, not only developing the most popular green tea in the market but also producing various types of tea such as black tea, green tea, and Liubao tea in different seasons. Local tea farmers often praise Huang Rongxiong, saying, "Now we can be busy all year round, increasing our income, and we no longer have to leave home to work." The smiles of tea farmers are the greatest encouragement for Huang Rongxiong. With the support of many tea farmers, Huang Rongxiong established a tea cooperative, organizing local villagers to produce tea according to company requirements, prohibiting the use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides, ensuring that the tea is grown in the most natural and healthy way, laying the foundation for quality and safety of tea products, leading to strong sales and continuous expansion of the enterprise. In 2010, the original Guilin Lijiang Tea Processing Plant was renamed "Guilin Lijiang Tea Factory Co., Ltd." Under Huang Rongxiong's leadership, the company quickly grew into a comprehensive tea company integrating tea planting, processing, sales, and research and development.

Creating high-quality products, gaining a reputation far and wide.

As the saying goes, "Three parts depend on picking, seven parts on processing." The quality of tea picking not only affects the quality, yield, and economic benefits of tea but also relates to the growth and lifespan of tea trees. If the freshly picked leaves are not processed in time, many will lose value due to spoilage. Huang Rongxiong takes pride in the fact that the biggest advantage of the "Lijiang Spring" brand is its independent production base and advanced processing technology.

Over the years, Huang Rongxiong has built a green industrial chain of "company + cooperative + tea farmers," with over 500 acres of its own natural high mountain tea garden base, utilizing more than 10,000 local wild ancient tea trees, directly benefiting over 300 farming households, with a planting area covering more than 3,000 acres. Each year, the amount paid directly to farmers for tea purchases reaches several million yuan, significantly promoting rural revitalization in the area.

In terms of production technology, the enterprise has advanced raw tea processing equipment, high-quality tea processing equipment, refined processing equipment, fully automatic bagged tea processing equipment, and compressed tea processing equipment, along with a team that has continuously researched the technology for many years, creating the unique quality of the "Lijiang Spring" series of teas. For example, in the production of Liubao tea, Huang Rongxiong inherited the fermentation technology of Liubao tea from the Guangxi Guilin Tea Factory in the 1980s, using natural ecological spring water for fermentation, absorbing the essence of Guilin's distinct four seasons, resulting in the unique quality characteristics of "red, strong, aged, and mellow."

Every autumn, the city of Guilin is filled with the fragrance of osmanthus, which is delightful and refreshing. "Our osmanthus tea is made from fresh osmanthus flowers and tea leaves through a special process, not just mixing dried flowers and tea leaves, which is a substitute tea and does not belong to real osmanthus tea," Huang Rongxiong stated. The company's R&D team has conducted extensive research on osmanthus tea processing technology, directly participating in the formulation of one local standard in Guangxi and obtaining two national invention patents. These new technologies have created conditions for the company to produce high-quality osmanthus tea.

In Huang Rongxiong's view, tea, as an important representative of Chinese culture exported abroad, must comply with national policies on ecology, health, and environmental protection. No matter how innovative the research and development is, it must be guided by the thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, firmly establish a new development concept, implement high-quality development requirements, promote tea culture, strengthen the tea industry, support tea technology, use digitalization as a breakthrough, enhance origin management, ensure product quality, fill industry gaps, promote the integration of the three industries, enhance brand effects, and build a coordinated development of tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology to elevate the new pattern of "Lijiang Spring" tea development.

With the corporate mission of "Integrity as the foundation, dedication to reality, tea for the world, and health for all," "Lijiang Spring" has repeatedly won honors in various evaluations: In 2005, the green tea, osmanthus tea, jasmine tea, and other series produced by the company were awarded the title of "Chinese Famous and Excellent Products" by the China Famous and Excellent Products Promotion Center and the China Product Quality Management Association. In 2008, the "Lijiang Spring" series of teas was selected as the most trusted quality brand by consumers. In 2010, "Lijiang Cuilan" won the gold medal in the China Green Tea Evaluation of the Zhonglv Cup. In 2011, "Lijiang Spring" was awarded the title of China Quality Trusted Brand. In 2012, the special grade osmanthus tea from "Lijiang Spring" won the first prize in the second National Tea Evaluation of the Guoyin Cup. In 2013 and 2015, the company's osmanthus tea was continuously selected as a national famous and special new agricultural product. In 2016, the special grade osmanthus fragrant needle tea from Lijiang Spring won the first prize in the fourth "Guoyin Cup" National Tea Evaluation. In 2016, the special grade osmanthus fragrant needle tea won the gold medal in the National Osmanthus Tea Evaluation Competition. In 2018, the company's Guilin osmanthus tea won the title of "Top Ten Good Teas" at the first Guangxi Good Ingredients event. In December 2018, the company's special grade osmanthus black tea won the second prize in the first Guilin Osmanthus Tea King Competition (black tea category). In June 2019, the company's special grade osmanthus black tea won the bronze medal at the Guangxi Agricultural Silk Road Promotion Festival in Malaysia. In 2019, Lijiang Spring was included in the "China Brand Archives"; osmanthus green tea won the "Top Ten Famous Teas" at the 2020 Guangxi Celebration of China's Farmers' Harvest Festival...

For the rural revitalization, craftsmanship builds dreams with long-lasting meaning

Tea is a green leaf, but also an industry that can revitalize the hometown and benefit the people. In Huang Rongxiong's view, the word "tea" can be broken down into the life among the plants and trees, which contains the wisdom of the unity of man and nature. Therefore, making tea is also about being a person. It must be down-to-earth and make high-quality tea that ordinary people can enjoy, so that it can last for a long time.

In order to let more tea lovers know about "Lijiang Spring", further build tea brands, expand the tea market, and better promote the "out of the mountains" of Lijiang Spring series tea, Huang Rongxiong actively strengthened brand planning, innovated marketing methods, highlighted the "green and healthy" brand advantages, and cooperated with major online platforms such as 1688, JD.com, and Taobao to tell the story of Lijiang Spring Tea, promote the Lijiang Spring Tea brand, and make Lijiang Spring Tea a highly influential local specialty tea in Guilin, integrating Guilin's tourism industry and helping the development of the tea industry. With the expansion of sales of "Lijiang Spring" tea products, the development of the company has not only driven tea farmers to increase their income and become rich, but also helped the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. Huang Rongxiong is not proud of the achievements he has made. He said that he will continue to promote product innovation, packaging reform, business innovation, and model innovation, promote the in-depth development of the tea industry, extend the processing industry chain, create high-quality tea derivatives, realize the transformation and upgrading of the traditional tea industry, carry out deep processing of tea, and develop tea products into high-end commodities such as hygiene, health care, and convenience. He will develop more series such as teas suitable for young people's tastes and health products for respecting elders. In response to modern people's pursuit of health, Huang Rongxiong is also confident that the brand will drive the local "tea-led tourism, tea-tourism integration" new development model, and build the local area into an ecological resort with prosperous industry, livable ecology, and affluent life... "A lifetime is only for one thing" For Huang Rongxiong, using the tea industry to drive tea farmers to overcome poverty, building a good ecological environment for the Lijiang River, and allowing more people to enjoy high-quality tea is his lifelong pursuit.

Rural revitalization is like Yugong's ambition, and tea is the sweet after bitterness. "Take tea and look at the world indifferently, taste it lightly and spend the cold and heat in peace." With tea as a companion and walking with tea, tea business and tea culture have long become the most important part of Huang Rongxiong's life. His simple character and high sense of responsibility are like a cup of clear tea, which becomes more mellow and intoxicating after years of precipitation. Under the leadership of Huang Rongxiong, the "Lijiangchun" brand will surely continue to maintain the reputation of high-quality tea, ecological tea, and healthy tea, let the lingering tea fragrance accompany the friendship between him and the tea farmers, and carry the ancient Chinese tea culture, drifting to all corners of the world, so that more people can understand the Lijiang River and taste the taste of Lijiangchun tea!