Blending tradition with modern elements, Songyang’s tea industry attracts young entrepreneurs to revive culture and drive economic growth.
Located where Songyang’s old town meets the new town, the Yushan Kong teahouse has become a popular destination for many young people. Yu Jie
Songyang has a long and rich history of tea cultivation and production. The county became famous for its tea as early as the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). Today, this land is home to over 10,000 hectares of eco-friendly tea plantations. One in every three Songyang residents is involved in the tea industry, whose full industrial chain value now exceeds RMB 13.5 billion.
With the thriving tea industry creating new opportunities, a growing number of young people are returning home to start businesses. From handcrafted tea workshops to chic modern tea lounges, and from rural tea plantations to online livestream studios, this new generation of “tea makers” is infusing ancient craftsmanship with modern creativity and bringing new vitality to this age-old tradition.
Craftsmanship at the Fingertips
On the stone-paved lanes of Songyang that date back to ancient times, Yang Junjie, a tea maker born in 1980s, worked deftly at the stove, his hands moving swiftly over the scorching iron wok as tender green tea leaves dance between his fingers.
“More and more people enjoy the art of tea-making nowadays. They are rediscovering the value of handcrafted tea,” Yang said. As consumers increasingly seek quality and authenticity, hand-roasted tea, renowned for its flavor and cultural depth, can sell for three to five times the price of machine-processed varieties. “Last year, a customer from Shanghai drove over 600 kilometers just to buy my tea,” he recalled. “He said machine-made tea lacks the warmth of a human touch.”
Yang’s connection with tea runs deep. Growing up beside his grandfather’s tea stove, he witnessed the craft from an early age. After leaving the army in 2009, he traveled to Hangzhou to study the techniques of Longjing tea roasting and often practiced for over 10 hours a day.
Today, his Jiuchen Tea Workshop has become a well-known brand, with orders pouring in from across China. The workshop brings in around RMB 10,000 in sales each month.
To ensure the craft lives on, Yang carefully trains apprentices, emphasizing gentle and steady pressure. Inspired by his example, many young locals are now taking up this centuries-old skill.
Innovation on the Palate
At the junction between Songyang’s old and new towns, the teahouse Yushankong has become a trendy hangout for the young. Its slogan, “Traditional Tea, Youth Creation,” encapsulates founder Pan Hongri’s mission.
Also born in the 1980s and a graduate in luxury brand management from France, Pan left a fast-paced, well-paid corporate career in Hangzhou City in 2022 to return home, determined to reinterpret tea culture through a youthful lens. “When I was little, my family would serve sugar frost tea to guests during the Spring Festival,” she recalled. This traditional sweet tea from Songyang became her source of inspiration. But to appeal to young people, she knew it needed a modern twist.
She began experimenting, carrying bags of tea home to test new blends, with friends and relatives becoming her loyal testers. Using Songyang Fragrant Tea and Songyang Silver Monkey Tea as bases, Pan created bold fusions, infusing tea with fruity freshness, creamy richness, depth of coffee and even a hint of cocktail-style zest.
At Yushankong, traditional tea tables are paired with sleek modern teaware. Visitors not only enjoy creative tea beverages but also enjoy a social experience. “We’re selling more than tea, we’re selling a lifestyle,” Pan said.
In one of her most creative endeavors, she organized an exhibition pairing luxury fashion with Songyang’s rural products: Gucci handbags next to Songyang Silver Monkey Tea, Balenciaga outfits beside mountain-grown bamboo shoots. “It’s about discovering local beauty through the lens of global luxury,” she said. Her Yushankong Common Prosperity Workshop has sold over 2,000 locally sourced agricultural gift sets.
“Traditional tea culture needs youthful expression,” Pan said. With two thriving teahouses in Lishui and Hangzhou, she plans to expand her creative tea drink line and grow online sales channels to spread the fragrance of Songyang tea even farther.
Livestreaming Tea Culture
At the Southern Zhejiang Tea Market in Songyang, the largest green tea trading hub in China, the air is filled with the scent of freshly roasted leaves. Shops line the streets, farmers and traders come and go, and daily transactions reach 185 tons.
Sensing opportunity, locals have turned to e-commerce to expand their sphere of influence. Among the pioneers is Wang Yipeng, who returned home in 2017 after leaving a city job. At first, his parents couldn’t understand why a college graduate would come back to sell tea. But Wang had a strong instinct that Songyang’s tea industry held enormous potential.
Wang assembled a 16-member startup team and traveled across tea plantations to learn from veteran tea farmers, filming every step of the process from picking to roasting. His brand, “Tea Farmer Wang Dapeng,” has now attracted over 700,000 followers with these educational short videos across Douyin and Red Note, selling nearly 500 kg of tea daily and generating annual revenues of RMB 30-40 million. E-commerce has not only opened new sales channels but also created local jobs, inspiring many young people to return home and start their own ventures.
Currently, Songyang hosts over 700 active e-commerce enterprises, more than half focused on the tea trade. The county has cultivated 1,650 online tea stores, and in 2024, online tea sales surpassed RMB 5 billion.
Songyang is now repositioning its tea industry with a new mindset: nationwide sourcing and selling. By establishing a complete supply system centered on Songyang Fragrant Tea and integrating six major tea categories, the county aims to become a national model for tea innovation and digital transformation.
On this land steeped in a thousand years of tea heritage, the return of its youth has brewed not just prosperity but renewal, creativity, and a vibrant new chapter in the story of Chinese tea.
