“It is said that half of the world's mountains are green in Guizhou.” In his poem “Presenting Tung, Prefect of Guizhou, Wang Zhongcheng,” Tang Dynasty poet Meng Jiao extolled the verdant hills of Guizhou. This “green” owes much to Tea.
The county of Meitan in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, has been rated as “China's Top 100 Tea Counties – Number One” for several consecutive years. Life here revolves around tea. At the China Tea Sea scenic area in Yongxing Town, Meitan County, people ascend the “Tea Sea Viewing Tower” early each morning to savor a cup of tea. After leaving the tea sea, they head to local restaurants to enjoy the specialty dish “Tea-Leaf Ribs.”
During spring tea-picking season, tea pickers wearing sun hats deftly pluck leaves from the tea bushes. In small and large tea processing plants, fresh tea leaves enter and finished tea leaves exit, smooth and uniform, their fragrance rising.
The China Tea Sea scenic area in Yongxing Town, Meitan County (photographed on April 5). Photo by Zhou Fanghua/Xinhua
In Mati Village, Xhezhen Town, Meitan County, Ding Changyu and his wife Wang Yalin pick tea during the peak tea-picking season in nearby tea gardens. For manual picking like theirs, the fee is 16 yuan per catty, and they can pick about 10 catties a day.
Meitan County lies at 27 degrees north latitude, sharing the same golden belt for tea cultivation with Darjeeling in India and Wuyi Mountain in Fujian Province. “Meitan Green Bud” has won 88 national gold medals. Today, Meitan tea is enjoyed overseas, with direct exports amounting to 44.9839 million U.S. dollars in 2025, ranking first among counties in Guizhou Province.
Tea, culture, and tourism go hand in hand. In recent years, Meitan County has meticulously developed tourist attractions such as the “World's Largest Teapot” Tea culture theme park and the 27° Green Bud scenic area, attracting visitors from all over. In the 216 model beautiful rural areas throughout the county, tea gardens are everywhere, making rural courtyards both visually appealing and economically viable.
The “World's Largest Teapot” tea culture theme park (photographed on April 5). Photo by Huang Jun/Xinhua
“Once you arrive in Meitan, you don't want to leave. The tea gardens and teahouses are so relaxing. Both black and green teas are of excellent quality, and the tea culture atmosphere is rich.” Chen Ying, a visitor from Guangdong, travels to Meitan every year, staying anywhere from three to five days to half a month.
Inside the China Tea Industry Museum located in Meitan County, wooden tea primary screening machines, metal-made wok machines, and fully wooden red tea production line equipment attract visitors with their array of old items.
“I didn't realize that Guizhou tea had such a profound history.” Shanghai visitor Gao Xiaoming spent a whole morning thoroughly exploring this museum.
Old-style tea-making tools on display at the China Tea Industry Museum (photographed on April 5). Photo by Wang Jun/Xinhua
According to historical records in the museum, by the late 1950s, products processed by the Meitan Tea Farm began appearing on international markets, ending the history of Guizhou's raw Black Tea being blended into Sichuan's refined “Chuan Hong” before export.
The museum's curator explains that industrial tea production and processing in Guizhou started when the Central Experimental Tea Farm was established in Meitan during the Republic of China era. At that time, in addition to traditional tea-making tools such as iron woks and bamboo products, suspended withering curtains, wooden fermentation racks, and wooden drying boxes were researched and used for the production and processing of green, black, and dark teas.
On this land spanning over 1,800 square kilometers, there is a rich history surrounding tea. Today, after decades of tireless work by 300,000 tea farmers, the “green” of Meitan tea is even more vibrant.