After climbing the stone steps of a tea garden, Fang Dongyu, 68, spends most of his time picking fresh tea leaves with other villagers as the harvest season of spring tea has started, "We can earn over 10,000 yuan a month during the harvest season, which we couldn't imagine before," said Fang from Wugongling village of Shexian county, East China's Anhui province. However, the mountainous Wugongling was once a poor village because of the terrible traffic and bad farmming conditions.
In the 1960s, to fight against hunger, villagers here spent about 13 years creating a tea garden on the poor mountains by hand with over 700 million pieces of stones. Men and women, old and young. we worked together, From early morning to late night, we were working hard with the dream of improving our lives," said Fang, who started helping build the tea garden at the age of 13. Although decades have passed and people who struggled (奋)for the tea garden have grown old, the spirit of struggle has been followed and shows stronger power nowadays. With the help of the government, organic white tea (有机白茶) has been brought to the tea garden and it has become a big attraction since 2021. E-business and short-video platforms allow the villagers to achieve their dreams in this remote place.
"We will further develop the village by combining tourism with agriculture, protect our culture and carry forward the spirit of struggle," said Fang Jincai, Party secretary of Wugongling village.
