First Guzhang Tourism Development Conference kicks off

On the morning of March 20, the 1st Guzhang Tourism Development Conference as well as the 7th China · Guzhang Tea Tourism Culture Festival kicked off. At 10:18, the passionate drum sound opened the prelude to the event. Such programs with Guzhang’s tea cultural characteristics as the poetry and dance music “Fragrant Tea-making Technique Passed down through Hundreds of Generations” and the dance “Beautiful Hometown of Tea” showed the unique charm of the integration of Guzhang’s culture, tea and tourism.

Guzhang County is located at 28 degrees latitude north in mysterious Xiangxi, the hinterland of the Wuling Mountains. The superior geographical environment endows Guzhang Tea with high quality and unique taste.
 
As the hometown of famous tea and organic tea in China as well as a key tea-producing county in China, the county boasts 200,000 mu (about 13,333.33 hectares) of tea gardens, with a total output of over 12,000 tons of tea in 2022 and an output value of more than 1.6 billion yuan.

On the left side of the stage, five large pots used to stir-fry tea were lined up. Zhang Yuanzhong, a 73-year-old representative inheritor of the provincial-level Guzhang Maojian Tea making technique, instructed four young people to make Guzhang Tea. The tea making technique of the Guzhang people has been passed down from generation to generation. In 1929, Guzhang Tea won a silver medal at the French International Expo. In 1957, it garnered praise at the Leipzig International Expo and opened up the Western European market. In 1982, it became one of the top ten famous teas in China. In 1988, it was awarded the gold medal at the first China Food Expo. In 2007, it was rated as one of the national geographical indication products. Guzhang Tea has also successively got the gold award at the 8th International Famous Tea Competition, the special award at the “Chinese Tea Cup” National Famous Tea Competition, the gold award for “the Centennial World Expo Chinese Famous Tea” in 2015, etc.

With a forest coverage of 80 percent, Guzhang is known as the “Natural Oxygen Zone of China” and is the best destination for wellness, leisure and vacation tourism. In 2022, Guzhang County received a total of 4.0042 million domestic and foreign tourists, and realized a tourism revenue of 3.118 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 2.67 percent and 19.90 percent respectively.