War-Time Exports Plunge into a Lull
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Shanghai and Guangzhou fell to the enemy, and China's Tea export market shifted to Hong Kong. In 1938, the National Government's Ministry of Finance Trade Committee implemented a unified purchase and sales system for tea nationwide, which concentrated exports through Hong Kong, causing a surge in Hong Kong's tea export volume. According to statistics recorded in the book China's Tea Trade and Tea Industry Finance, the total amount of tea exported in 1937 was 30,661,700 yuan, 30,787,300 yuan in 1938, and reached 33,054,100 yuan in 1939.
Traditional tea shops in Hong Kong are mostly found in Sai Wan and Sheung Wan areas.
However, this prosperity didn't last long. In December 1941, the Pacific War broke out. Hong Kong and various regions in Southeast Asia were occupied, leading to a plunge in tea consumption in these areas. China's tea exports through Hong Kong also entered a state of paralysis. Due to the temporary interruption of the tea shipping line from Wuzhou to Hong Kong, exports of Liubao tea to Hong Kong were virtually cut off.
After the end of World War II, the prospects for Hong Kong's foreign trade and shipping industries re-emerged. The Wuzhou-Hong Kong shipping route was restored, and Liubao tea exports to Hong Kong recovered. Chen Guisheng, Deputy General Manager of the Guijiang Shipping Co., Ltd., has vivid memories of this period: “Before 1949, there were often private cargo ships from Wuzhou heading to Hong Kong, which would dock around the old Danan Wharf area. Whenever a ship set sail from Wuzhou, some ‘jiubalao' [a term for peddlers] would hold up signs on Sha Street to solicit transportation business until the ship departed in the afternoon.”
On the other hand, during World War II, because Portugal was a neutral country, China's tea exports were handled by the port of Macao. As stated in the article The Historical Changes and Development Prospects of the Port of Macao, Macao continued to serve as a transshipment port for a period after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Moreover, the war led to an increase in population inflow and thriving trade in Macao, boosting the consumption of Liubao tea in the region. Despite a significant decline in exports, Liubao tea from Wuzhou managed to survive thanks to its transshipment through Macao and local consumption.
Tea Ships Become Rare Guests
After the smoke of war dissipated and the world economy gradually recovered, the ancient tea ship route extending overseas became active once again in the 1950s.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, the populations of Hong Kong and Macao experienced several leaps in growth. The local catering industry expanded continuously, with teahouses and restaurants flourishing, creating a high demand for Liubao tea. The Wing Shing Cheong Tea Shop Co., Ltd. was the exclusive agent for Liubao tea in Hong Kong, and its director-manager, Situ Fa, still remembers that in the 1970s and 1980s, the company imported over 100 tons of refined Liubao tea each year. These shipments of Liubao tea would often be sold out immediately upon arrival at the wharf in Sai Wan to waiting secondary wholesalers (distributors).
From the mid-1950s onwards, as tin mining in Southeast Asia gradually resumed, the number of Chinese workers in the region surged again, and the glorious chapter of Liubao tea exports to Southeast Asia via Hong Kong was rewritten in a new historical era. Data shows that until the mid-1990s, more than 1,000 tons of Liubao tea were exported from the Wuzhou foreign trade port to the Hong Kong market each year, and further distributed overseas through Hong Kong.
From the 1950s to the early 1990s, it can be said that this was the golden age for Liubao tea exports to Hong Kong and Macao via maritime transport. Reflecting on this period, there were several changes in the shipping situation between Wuzhou and Hong Kong and Macao. Chen Guisheng and Lai Zhanjing, Chairman of the Nan Guang Logistics Co., Ltd. in Macao, provided insightful analyses—
Firstly, the operating entities changed. By the mid-1950s, the shipping business in Wuzhou gradually became public-private partnerships, with the state-owned Wuzhou Shipping Company becoming the dominant player. In the early 1990s, the Wuzhou Shipping Company established the Wuzhou-Hong Kong Shipping Co., Ltd. specifically, and later, the Guijiang Shipping Co., Ltd. founded the Shunjing Hong Kong-Macao Shipping Co., both competing in the shipping between Wuzhou and Hong Kong.
Lian Xiang Lou is one of the few remaining traditional teahouses in Hong Kong.
Secondly, the vessels used for transport changed. When the People's Republic of China was first established, the Wuzhou-Hong Kong and Wuzhou-Macao routes primarily used tugboats towing barges and passenger-cargo mixed vessels known as “flower-tailed ferries.” In 1966, new cargo ships began appearing on the Wuzhou-Hong Kong route. By the mid-1980s, all ships traveling between Wuzhou and Hong Kong had become cargo ships. By the 1990s, the use of containerized cargo transport became prevalent on the Wuzhou-Hong Kong route.
Lastly, the shipping routes changed. In the 1950s, the development of the port of Macao stagnated, and goods transported from Wuzhou to Macao could only be transshipped through Hong Kong. This situation persisted until the mid-1980s when direct shipping between Wuzhou and Macao was restored.
In the 1970s, an advertisement for Ying Ji Tea Shop on a tram in Hong Kong.
However, in the late 1990s, the waterway exports of Liubao tea to Hong Kong and Macao gradually dwindled. During this period, Hong Kong's shipping industry declined quietly, and the local consumption market for Liubao tea in Hong Kong and Macao shrank, causing the ancient tea ship route to weaken rapidly in these regions.
After entering the 2000s, although Wuzhou still shipped hundreds of tons of Liubao tea products to Hong Kong and Macao annually, times had changed. With the continuous improvement and development of road transportation, maritime shipping between Wuzhou and Hong Kong declined, and the tea ships traveling between the two places became rare guests. The Wuzhou-Hong Kong Shipping Co., Ltd. even completely exited the stage.
In the late 1990s, the shipping industry between Wuzhou and Macao declined, and direct shipping between Wuzhou and Macao was interrupted again. All goods, including Liubao tea, were entirely transshipped through Hong Kong or Zhuhai, a situation that continues to this day.
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