Gao County has a long history of tea cultivation and processing, with a profound Tea culture.

Gao County is an important node on the Qin Five-Foot Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road. The local people have had the habit of growing and processing tea for generations, making it a famous ancient tea area in Bashu, with a history of over 3,000 years of tea cultivation and processing. It is a major source of high-quality early-harvest tea leaves and the original production area of “Chuan Hong Gongfu” tea.

China is the world's earliest country to start cultivating, processing, and Drinking Tea. The Bashu region is one of the earliest areas in China to utilize tea plants and tea leaves. Gao County is a historically famous tea-producing area in Bashu and one of the original origins of Chinese Tea.

According to relevant historical records: throughout the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Gao County was always one of Sichuan Province's major tea-producing counties.

In the Republican era, although tea in Gao County was often grown along edges of fields, in low-lying areas, along ditches, on terraces, and on barren slopes, it was still one of Sichuan's major tea-producing counties. According to statistical data from the 1930s showing annual tea production in various counties of Sichuan Province: only six counties, including Ya'an, Guanxian (now Dujiangyan), and Dayi, had higher tea yields than Gao County. Gao County's production ranked first in today's Yibin region. By 1947, Gao County remained one of Sichuan's primary tea-producing counties.

In 1949, the total tea plantation area in Gao County reached 7,000 mu, with a tea output of 250 tons. In 1949, the tea plantation area in today's Yibin City region was 17,000 mu, with a total tea production of 1,079 tons.

In early February 1951, the Southwest Branch of the China National Tea Import and Export Corporation selected seven tea production bases, including Luochang Township in Gao County, Gubai Township in Yibin County, Maotai Town in Renhuai County, Guizhou, and Huangjing Township in Chishui County, to establish red tea Promotion Stations to promote new tea varieties and red tea processing techniques, changing the focus from green to red tea.

In 1952, Gao County issued a call to “restore abandoned tea plantations and vigorously revive tea production,” achieving a tea output of 3,300 piculs that year.

After the national tea work conference in 1954, tea production in Gao County entered a development phase.

In August 1969, the Gao County Revolutionary Committee's Production Command Group convened a tea production field meeting at the former Qingtan Commune. This was the first specialized tea meeting in Gao County, attended by over 140 people for three days. Following the meeting, there was a surge in clearing land for tea cultivation across the county.

The core force behind this round of significant tea development were the cooperative tea farms established by communes, brigades, and production teams. By the end of 1973, 41 communes in Gao County had 138 cooperative tea farms involving 963 production teams, covering 10,500 mu of new-style tea gardens, accounting for 70% of the county's total area.

In April 1974, the national tea work conference decided to establish several tea production bases in each tea-producing province across the country. Sichuan Province designated Gao County, Kaixian, Liangping, Junlian, and seven other counties, which produced around 50,000 piculs of tea annually, as base counties.

In 1976, Gao County had 32,000 mu of tea gardens, producing 15,600 piculs of tea. In 1977, Gao County became one of the key production areas for “Chuan Hong” tea.

In 1979, there were 166 cooperative tea farms in Gao County, with a combined tea garden area of 18,773 mu, 8,244.7 mu of which were in production, generating a total output value of 1.6428 million yuan. The average yield of fine tea per mu and average income per mu were 65.5 kilograms and 200 yuan, respectively. That year, Xiong Xiangtang, head of the Gao County Supply and Marketing Cooperative, represented Gao County at a provincial meeting for experience sharing.

By the end of 1984, the tea garden area in Gao County was approximately 48,000 mu, with production increasing for 16 consecutive years, and the output of fine tea ranking first in the province for three consecutive years. In 1985, the output of red tea in Gao County accounted for 40% of the total “Chuan Hong Gongfu” tea production in the province, fulfilling the conditions for the establishment of a commercial tea base. In September 1986, Gao County was designated as a “National Commercial Tea Export Base County.” Only two counties in Sichuan, Gao County and Nanquan, received this honor.

In 1987, Gao County became a national export production base for red tea.

In 1990, the total tea garden area in Gao County reached 63,000 mu, with 60,990 mu in production; the total output was 4,167.95 tons, including 3,190.95 tons of fine tea; the total output value was 17.28 million yuan, with an average increase of 40.54 yuan per capita, and tax contributions totaling 3.574 million yuan.

In 1991, facing intense competition after the market liberalization, Gao County ended the unified purchase and sale system for tea, formulating a strategy to focus on the provincial market while expanding sales outside the province, transitioning from red to Green Tea production.

By the end of 1998, in addition to establishing a county-level tea production office, 14 towns and townships had also set up tea production offices. During the privatization process, emphasis was placed on fostering leading enterprises, implementing industrialized production through a tiered cooperative model, forming a development pattern where the market leads the enterprise, the enterprise leads the base, and the base connects with farmers.

After overcoming a period of low market demand, Gao County began developing premium teas. In 1997, the tea products “Fengding Mingya” and “Fengding Yin