Keep the innovation originality build a dream
After 25 years of unremitting efforts
Yunnan Longyuan tea industry has entered a new era
The growth of Tea enterprise in the “label level” period
In the long river of history, there are always some names, like the mountain springs, quietly flowing but nourishing all things; There are always some stories, like old trees new shoots, through the wind and frost more vitality. Longyuan, is such a witness and creator of time, since 1999 set sail in the “label level” period of chaos and clarity, with tea as the pen, with years as the ink, drawing a magnificent picture of inheritance, innovation and dream.
Xishuangbanna is the central area of the origin of tea trees in the world, the famous Pu ‘er tea originated here, and the ancient tea horse Road also starts from here. The long tea culture and rich tea resources have attracted many tea lovers and tea workers to struggle and live here. Li Zhengxing, the famous tea man and chairman of Longyuan Tea Industry, and Li Zhaokang, the vice chairman, are among the pioneers. “A good cup of tea is a gift from nature and the crystallization of craftsmen’s efforts.” Standing in front of Longyuan Tea Industry’s breathtaking Dadu Gangan tea garden, looking at the green garden and the distant misty mountains, it seems that you can hear the gentle footsteps of time, echoing in this land soaked by tea fragrance.
Dream of dragon garden, years like song
In Xinglongchang Village, Ifantang Town, a remote Yi village in Xuanwei City, Yunnan Province, an ordinary tea man named Li Zhengxing was born in 1952. Since his childhood, he has lived in an environment with blocked traffic and poor land. With the dream of walking out of the mountains and changing his destiny, he set foot on the journey of studying and pursuing his dream with perseverance. In the 1970s, Li Zhengxing, with his unremitting efforts, became one of the few students in the village who could enter the threshold of middle school. Deeply aware of the truth that knowledge can change fate, he was finally admitted to the tea major of Yunnan Agricultural University, which opened the indissoluble bond with tea. Faced with the pressure of family economy, he made unremitting efforts to complete his studies, and resolutely chose to go to the remote Xishuangbanna to devote himself to the vast world of tea planting and research.
In the former state-owned Dadugang tea farm in Xishuangbanna, Li Zhengxing faced a barren and challenging landscape. But he did not back down, but with full enthusiasm and professional knowledge, into the construction of tea farm. From the technician to the head of the tea farm, he led the staff to work hard, planted tens of thousands of acres of tea, also opened up rubber forests, and developed the Dadu Gang tea farm into a national second-level enterprise, and the products have won many awards. Li Zhengxing’s contribution has been recognized by the national and local governments at all levels, won a number of honors, and became an outstanding representative of the frontier agricultural reclamation cause.
In 1993, with the complete cancellation of the policy of unified purchase and marketing, Pu ‘er tea entered the era of “label grade”. The implementation of this policy seems to have been a fatal blow to the traditional state-owned enterprises under the planned economy, most of which were in the throes of change during the period from 1993 to 1999, and the Xishuangbanna State-owned Datugang Tea Farm was no exception. With the deepening of the reform of state-owned enterprises, Li Zhengxing keenly seized the opportunity to establish the “Dadugang Longyuan Ecological Tea Factory” in 1999, and registered the “Longyuan” trademark. With his own tea factory and his own brand, Li Zhengxing set out again with his dream. He personally led the staff, began to plant a large area of tea gardens, green tea, black tea production, at the same time, actively purchase ancient tree tea raw materials, carefully make high-quality ancient tree Pu ‘er tea. Li Zhengxing’s contribution to Xishuangbanna tea industry has been affirmed by the leaders of the prefecture. It was also during this period that the state decided to set up Xishuangbanna Tea Group Company and appointed Li Zhengxing as the chairman of the group.
In the following period, under the planning of Li Zhengxing, Xishuangbanna Dragon Garden Tea industry World, tea culture dissemination center and tea museum were built one after another, becoming an important window to display Pu ‘er tea culture. In particular, the Pu ‘er tea column in the Dragon Garden Tea Industry World, which is 4.5 meters high and weighs 20,600 kilograms, has occupied a place in the world record certification and has been officially certified as “the world’s largest movable tea column”. At the same time, the tea garden built by Longyuan Tea Industry in Dadugang Township with a total area of 6,195 mu was recognized by the World Record certification body as “the world’s largest leaf seed famous mountain tea popular science park”. These achievements have added dazzling brilliance to the development path of tea culture and attracted the attention of countless tea culture lovers.
Li Zhengxing’s story is a story about dreams, struggle and dedication. In the world of tea, he used his own actions to interpret what is true ingenuity and persistence, and inspired the future to continue to move forward.
The first taste of tea will never change
Li Zhaokang grew up with his father Li Zhengxing in the famous Dadugang Tea Area of Xishuangbanna, which has nearly 100,000 mu of tea gardens. He has been influenced by traditional tea culture for a long time, and has always had a strong interest in cloud tea and unique opinions. In 1994, he successfully completed his university studies and continued his studies, eventually obtaining a master’s degree. After graduation, he chose to stay at the university and continue to contribute to the academic and educational fields. In the middle and late 1990s, the international influence of Pu ‘er tea gradually increased, and it was exported to Japan, Europe and the United States, etc. At the same time, in China, especially in the Pearl River Delta region, the Pu ‘er tea market rose rapidly. Yunnan Pu ‘er tea enterprises came into being, ushering in unprecedented development opportunities. Under the influence of his father, from this period, Li Zhaokang began to pay attention to the development of cloud tea industry, especially Pu ‘er tea industry, and since then opened the road of tea for more than 20 years.
In the history of the development of the Dragon Garden, 2002 is a year worth remembering. This year, Li Zhaokang, with his unique market vision, focused the strategic focus of Longyuan on the Yunnan tea market, especially the sales and market expansion of Pu ‘er tea. In an interview, Li Zhaokang reviewed the brand development road of Longyuan, he stressed: “The product has always been the cornerstone of our brand, whether it is the starting point or the destination of the brand, it is deeply rooted in the product. “Consumers often recognize a brand from its products, so we always focus on improving product quality.”
It is based on such a brand concept, Longyuan launched the landmark “fire millennium wild ancient tea seven seed cake” in 2002. This tea is selected from the ancient tree tea raw materials of Youle Mountain, and its processing is handmade. Fresh leaves are burned and then refined by stone mill (or wood mill). As we all know, the methods of killing Pu ‘er tea are frying, steam killing, boiling water killing, sun killing, fire killing. Among them, fire killing is a strange method of killing. Killing green by fire used to be a method of making tea for the Yule (Jino) people. The method is to wrap the fresh leaves of tea with the leaves of a plant called winter leaf and put them on the edge of the fire to roast and kill, and then kneade and dry. There are two special places in fire killing, one is insufficient killing, retaining more active enzymes, and the speed of change of tea is faster than that of frying. The second is that the killing is easy to be uneven, and when the winter leaves are wrapped up, the degree of killing of each packet of tea will be different. Due to the different degree of killing, the change of each cake tea will be different, the taste will be different, the same tea will have several taste tastes, some change fast, some slow, and some will have a mush taste, very challenging and interesting.
The following year, Longyuan made another effort to launch the “Xishuangbanna 50th Anniversary cake”. We can see that the development history of printing grade tea and Qizi cake Pu ‘er tea is almost synchronized with the growth track of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and has gone through half a century of leisurely years. Therefore, at the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Xishuangbanna, Pu ‘er tea was chosen as a memorial, and through the memory of Pu ‘er tea, people’s memory of Xishuangbanna’s progress and development in the past 50 years was aroused. From this point of view, this commemorative tea is of extraordinary significance. This is a product led by the Xishuangbanna government, which in addition to advertising the tea tree tea area limit, there is a certificate, covered with the state government’s seal, and the packaging paper, the inside ticket are also covered with the tea number. According to the tea merchants, the state government decided to make this tea in 2002, then began to look for tea gardens in the east of the Lancang River, tracked down the management of tea gardens, and began to harvest in the spring of 2003, and the state government simultaneously began to look for cooperative tea factories, and finally Longyuan Tea industry obtained the production right and suppressed it. The total quantity of this tea is only 15,000 pieces. Today, most of these precious commemorative teas have flowed into Pu-erh tea selling areas such as Guangdong, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and only a few are given as gifts to those who have contributed to the development of Xishuangbanna.
This souvenir cake is also made of ancient tree tea, which is not only a tribute to the glorious history of Xishuangbanna Prefecture, but also a witness of Longyuan’s continuous exploration and innovation in the field of ancient tree tea. At that time, the ancient tree tea resources have not been fully developed, the market price is low, and Longyuan has taken the lead in buying a large number of ancient tree tea raw materials. Looking back on that period of history, Li Zhaokang was deeply moved: “At that time, the price of our purchase of ancient tree tea was only two or three yuan per kilogram, but Longyuan had a keen insight into the huge potential of ancient tree tea.” It can be said that we are one of the first companies engaged in the production and sale of ancient tree tea, which can be seen from our company name.”
The journey of the caravan, the mark of time
In 2004, Dadugang Longyuan Tea Factory was officially renamed Yunnan Xishuangbanna Guchashan Tea Industry Co., LTD. This transformation marks the company’s leap from the traditional tea factory model to the modern company operation model, and also reflects the local government’s high expectations and support for the development of the company. The use of “Xishuangbanna Prefecture” in the company’s name was extremely rare at that time, which contained the far-reaching consideration of the government’s hope that the company could become an important driver of local economic development.
In the same year, Li Zhao-kang set up a business department in Kunming Jinshi Tea leaf Market (now Yunnan Pu ‘er Tea Trading market), personally responsible for the distribution of “Longyuan” Pu ‘er tea, and actively develop distributors inside and outside the province, and constantly expand the consumer market. This year, Longyuan also carefully planned and launched the “Yunnan Culture Shanghai Industry Promotion Week Commemorative Tea”, which gathered the essence of Yiwu high-quality tea, and also obtained the official certification of the “Yunnan Province Cultural System and Reform Leading Group” (the office was the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee at that time), its cultural value and commemorative significance is extraordinary. Li Zhaokang loved this tea and repeatedly told the staff to keep it properly, which shows its value.
With the increasing prosperity of the Pu ‘er tea market, the blowout growth from a dozen brands to hundreds of brands has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities for the industry. In 2006, Longyuan participated in the “Large-scale cultural project – Ma Gang Gong Cha 10,000 Miles” activity supported by six ministries and commissions of the State and sponsored by Xishuangbanna Government. Composed of 99 horses and more than 30 horses Guotou, Yunnan Puer Tribute Tea Gang reproduces the history of tribute tea, passing through 9 provinces and 3 cities in China. This is a feat in the milestone of Chinese tea culture, but also a long march in the history of Pu ‘er tea. In this event, Longyuan Tea industry, as an important member, sponsored ten horses to join the ranks of the gang, among which, “Big Horse Gang No. 1” is the iconic tea of Longyuan Tea industry in this event. When Li Zhaokang talked about this, he could not hide his inner excitement and pride: “As the No. 1 horse, we Longyuan not only witnessed this extraordinary journey, but also integrated this glory and significance into every piece of tea.” These products are the early classics of our Longyuan, and are also rare commemorative treasures in the history of tea culture.” In addition, on this batch of “Big Horse Gang No. 1” commemorative tea, the official seal of the People’s Government of Xishuangbanna Prefecture was also printed. This unique mark highlighted its officially recognized cultural value and became a unique memory symbol of that era. Li Zhaokang fondly recalled: “In that special era, such an official seal imprint could not be copied, it made every piece of tea carry a heavy weight of history and culture.”
At that time, Longyuan No. For this event, the batch production of Pu ‘er tea products, a wide variety, rich series, covering cake tea, brick tea, Tuo tea and a variety of gift tea forms, each product is limited production, to ensure its rarity and collection value, making the “Ma Bang Gong Tea miles” series of tea has become a hot treasure in the market. These tea products, not only the mark of time, but also the witness of history, they together constitute the rich and colorful cultural map of Longyuan, but also contribute valuable strength to the development of Chinese tea culture.
Tea sea ebb and flow, adversity bloom
In 2007, the Pu ‘er tea market was suddenly cold, and a variety of complex factors superimposed to cause the market to turn sharply downward, and the entire industry fell into a trough. In this sudden crisis, countless businesses are facing the test of life and death, Longyuan number dealer Adong is one of them.
Dong’s tea shop was once a bright color on the streets, but with the collapse of the Pu-erh tea bubble, his shop has fallen into an unprecedented cold. There is no customer source, tea is piled up but no one is interested, and the tightness of the capital chain makes him feel unprecedented pressure. In the face of despair and predicament, Adong did not choose to sink, but with an almost stubborn attitude, chose to face the difficulties. He knew the only way out was to save himself. So A Dong made a bold decision: the house mortgage to the bank, while raising funds from friends and relatives, bit by bit to converge into millions of dollars. In August 2007, Kunming Xiongda Tea City more than a new store, that is the place where Dong started again, the store brand new, business area expanded, as if he is full of confidence in the future declaration.
At the same time, Longyuan is also actively responding to the challenges of the market. Under the leadership of Li Zhaokang and other management, Longyuan has strengthened communication and cooperation with dealers to jointly explore the way to break the game. Adong follow the pace of Longyuan number, using the preferential policies launched in the factory, and Li Zhaokang hand in hand to launch exquisite gift box tea, these innovative products quickly won the favor of the market, funds began to return, for Adong’s store brought hope.
The time has come in 2008, the winter of the Pu ‘er tea market has not yet passed, but Dong seems to have found a way to break the ice. During this period, he keenly grasped the market potential of customized tea, and jointly created a number of customized tea products with Longyuan Tea industry, each one striving for excellent quality, and eventually won the trust and praise of customers. He is well aware of the importance of the market, not only deep in the local market, but also actively expand out, footprint across a number of provinces, looking for like-minded partners to jointly explore the market. Online, he also kept up with the pace of The Times, opened an online store to sell “Dragon Garden” products, integrated traditional tea with modern e-commerce, and achieved significant sales performance.
In addition to the adjustment of sales strategy, Longyuan has also made efforts in product innovation. “Dragon Garden Image” as one of the star products, its unique strip design quickly attracted the attention of consumers, promoting the industry to a more convenient, more rapid consumption direction. “Dragon Pu-erh Tea Paste” is another innovation of Longyuan No., with a number of patented technologies, it has won market recognition for its stable quality and unique taste. In addition, the launch of featured products such as “Menghai Spring First Cake” and “Daban Zhang” further enriched the product line of Longyuan and enhanced the brand image and market competitiveness.
With the gradual recovery of the market, under the guidance of Li Zhaokang, Longyuan has comprehensively promoted the enterprise to the direction of more professional marketing and brand building. He proposed to take production as the cornerstone, keep up with market demand, and promote brand development through reform and innovation and optimization of sales models. The strategy of combining centralized sales with decentralized sales strengthens the contact with dealers and clarifies the development goals of “double hundred” dealers. At the same time, the annual national marketing work conference not only deepened the internal communication, but also drew a blueprint for the future development of Longyuan.
The story of A Dong is a microcosm of the growth of many dealers in the adversity of Longyuan. With courage and wisdom, they wrote the legend of rebirth and transformation. Through close cooperation with dealers, product innovation and pragmatic and effective business strategies, Longyuan has successfully resisted the impact of the market crisis and achieved steady development.