Research On Tea Industry Of Western Anhui In The Republic Of China

West region in Anhui province is collectively called Western Anhui. Republic ofChina was founded, and Lu’an State was changed to Lu’an County, Yingshan County wasassigned to Hubei Province in1932, Lihuang County was changed to Jinzhai County in1947. During the period of Republic of China, the concept of Western Anhui included thecounty of Lu’an, Huoshan, Lihuang (now Jinzhai), Shucheng, Yuexi and etc., whileYingshan, Qianshan and Taihu will be involved in some parts. Wanxi region, a major teaproducing area of Anhui, is also one of China’s largest teas producing area. Western Anhuiis a famous historical tea area, tea production was in a large proportion of the wholeagricultural production. Relatively, county Lu’an, Huoshan, Jinzhai produced more tea inthe whole region, provided with the world-famous Lu’an Guapian tea and Huoshan Yellowtea.During the period of the republic of China, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out,tea industry development has experienced very complicated changes in just30years. Yearsof everlasting wars and heavy taxes led economic depression and inflation, which made teafarmers’ lives very difficult. Meanwhile, tea plantation became barren, and yields of teahad fallen to the lowest level in history. On the other hand, under the influence of theSecond World War and the battle for the tea markets by the newly-emerging nation of teaproduction, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) rase up successively,making the yield of foreign tea increased. In addition, the mechanization of tea processingmade the tea more competitive in the international tea market. By contrast, Chinese tearefused to make any progress, resulting the production and trade from even bad to worse.Western Anhui has many natural advantages: the high-lying southwest, lower innortheast, formed trapezoidal distribution and three kinds of natural topographies,mountainous, plains and hills. With a just right altitude, moderate climate and fertile soil,Western Anhui is one of the traditional tea producing areas and is quite famous for “Lu’anTea”. On the opposite side, the large population and high density restrict the developmentof the economy to a great extent.During the period of the republic of China in Western Anhui, only the county thatHuoshan and Lihuang produce tea through the whole district. The southeast of Lu’anCounty and the southwest of Shucheng County also produce tea. The mainly kind of teaproduced in Western Anhui is green tea, and the teas were usually named by the name oftea tradesmen. The tea which is produce by special manufacturing is belongs to another group, such as Lu’an Guapian and the yellow tea from Huoshan county. Tea plantation inWestern Anhui had been always lack of management and protocol, which ultimatelyresulting tea production and yields decreased. However, according to the survey, when teaproduction decreased, and there also had a phenomenal rise in it.All the primary processing of tea were completed by tea farmers during the period ofthe republic of China in Western Anhui, and further processing of tea is completed by teatradesmen. Most famous tea and others varieties of tea named by tea tradesmen havespecial processing technique, such as Lu’an Guapian, the yellow tea from Huoshan county,chrysanthemum tea from Huoshan county, etc.Western taxes are always higher than Southern taxes in Anhui province, and WesternAnhui’s taxes are double of Southern Anhui’s taxes. Except the normal taxes, there weremany tax surcharges on the main county. The taxes only in counties such as Huoqiu andShucheng where the tea productions were less than other county were not collected. Theheavy taxes virtually raise manufacturing cost and greatly weaken the competitiveness oftea. There is a nearly equals split between the tea from Southern Anhui distributed abroadmarket and the tea from Western Anhui predominant the domestic market during theperiod of the republic of China. The development trend of Western Anhui’s tea trade wasup and down, and its general curve tended downward.Domestic tea in Western Anhui manufacted from tea plantation to sale market wasthrough two important main links, tea farmers and tea tradesmen. The two links wereconnected with each other closely to complete collectively the process that production,purchase, processing, transportation and sales.Tea industry of Western Anhui is influenced by many factors, and the advantageousfactors include unique natural environment, adding instruction of Western Anhui andimprovement station of Huoshan, widely popularized technique improvement, limited thearea of farmland per capita, a long history of tea culture. On the other hand, thedisadvantageous factors include natural and war disaster year by year, imperialistpenetration of China, lack of transportation, hefty taxes, and lack of the scientific andtechnical that tea planting, management of tea plantation and technology of tea-making.