402,000 person-times, a year-on-year increase of 33.52%;
Realized tourism revenue of 338 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 184%;
Search volume for “Jingmai Mountain” related terms on Ctrip increased by 161% month-on-month, and search volume on Meituan increased by 500% year-on-year;
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Since the successful application for the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site on September 17, 2023, as the world’s first tea-themed World Cultural Heritage, the popularity of the thousand-year-old Jingmai Mountain has soared, triggering a tourism boom.
Looking back at the past year, in terms of protection, management, cultural inheritance, and development/utilization, Jingmai Mountain has consistently adhered to the philosophy of “protection on the mountain, development below the mountain, and integration of tea and tourism,” “subtraction on the mountain, addition below the mountain,” and “touring on the mountain, staying below the mountain” for heritage protection and tourism development. It has scientifically and reasonably planned the development space for the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest and the Huimin Town area of Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, allowing the beauty of mountains and waters to better enhance the splendor of culture and development.
Deep integration of culture and tourism, outlining “poetry and distant lands”
“Since the successful application for World Heritage, more and more tourists are coming up the mountain. Our hotel’s monthly occupancy rate has remained above 80%, and some guests have even booked rooms for 2025—something we never dared to imagine before.” Dao Yanliang, the manager of Mangjing Village’s Lalong · Yunqi Xiaozhu Inn, has been busy decorating the inn recently to prepare for the National Day holiday visitors.
He said that the inn has 15 guest rooms, and all rooms are fully booked for this year’s National Day period. To ensure a high-quality stay and experience for tourists, several inns on the mountain have formed a cooperative group to develop customized Jingmai Mountain in-depth tour routes for guests, which has yielded excellent results.
As of now, there are 42 inns in Jingmai Mountain, providing over 500 individual rooms.
Since the successful application for World Heritage, the “Jingmai Mountain effect” has continued to intensify; the fame and reputation of Jingmai Mountain have risen rapidly, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists. By actively exploring integrated development models such as “agri-culture-tourism” and “agri-culture-tourism + wellness,” and by vigorously developing World Heritage tours, study tours, wellness tours, and festival tours—while accelerating the innovation of tourism products, models, formats, and service excellence—Mangjing Village has been rated as a Gold Medal Tourism Village in Yunnan Province. The tourist attractions are continuously being improved, with new characteristic “internet-famous” check-in spots such as the Jingmai Dazhai Qiyunli Viewing Platform and Shenshu Coffee being added; premium hotels such as Yiling Xingkong, Chashuwli, and Ctrip Holiday Farm are either under construction or operational, gradually enriching the tourism landscape of Jingmai Mountain. The promotion of customized Jingmai Mountain tours is underway, with efforts to establish in-depth tour products and build high-quality local reception services, having completed over 100 reception services for study groups from Yiling Group, Nanshu Fang, China Tea Corporation, Yunnan University, etc. The Jingmai Mountain Secret Realm Tea-Tourism Experience Activity was selected as a typical case of national intangible cultural exposure and tourism integration in 2023; Jingmai Mountain was successfully selected for the “Most Beautiful Spring Tea Garden” activity and launched six new tea-themed cultural tourism routes; and the Jingmai Mountain Tea Forest Cultural Scenic Area was rated as a provincial-level benchmark for green and beautiful scenic areas.
Chen Qun, a tourist from Xi’an, told reporters: “In Jingmai Mountain, we can experience the world’s first tea-themed World Cultural Heritage. It is very beautiful, with various ethnic groups gathered here; the ancient buildings are primitive and charming, and the local customs are simple and sincere, allowing us to find ‘poetry and distant lands’ here.”
Project construction gains momentum, adding “wings for takeoff”
“We are actively constructing a spatial development layout of ‘original ecological protection on the mountain and development/utilization below the mountain,’” introduced Zhang Pisheng, Director of the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Protection and Management Bureau and Deputy Secretary of the Lancang County Committee. “The ‘mountainside’ focuses on protecting important heritage sites and cultural experience locations, while the ‘foothills’ serve as an area for the comprehensive display of heritage value, integrated development of the tea industry, and comprehensive tourism service support, coordinating the relationship between protection and development to achieve complementary evolution and linked development between the mountain and its foothills.”
Only by protecting green mountains and clear waters can we exchange them for mountains of gold and silver. In the process of Jingmai Mountain moving toward the world, local governments and protection/management agencies have continuously improved and perfected the infrastructure of the heritage sites, scientifically planning a series of projects that align with national and provincial investment directions, and precisely applying for funds and projects. A total of seven Jingmai Mountain projects with a total investment of 7.259 billion yuan have been planned, actively seeking central budget investments, provincial budget investments, local government bonds, and special anti-epidemic treasury bonds to support four cultural tourism projects totaling 1.159 billion yuan. Efforts are being accelerated in the preliminary work for the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest World Heritage biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration/sink enhancement project, striving to include the project in the national treasury and seek a loan of 466 million yuan from the French Development Agency.
With the completion and use of the large parking lot in Huimin Town and the Jingmai Mountain Visitor Service Center, as well as the commencement of construction for projects such as the Jingmai Rural Revitalization Demonstration Park, Jingmai Ancient Tea Tree Town, Tea-Horse Ancient Cellar, Pu-erh Tea Processing Warehousing and Logistics Park, and the Jingmaishan Living Room Commercial Complex Boutique Hotel, and with the arrival of well-known cultural and tourism enterprises such as China Travel, Bolian, Aman, and Songtza, new formats, scenes, and models are injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of Jingmai Mountain’s agri-culture-tourism industry, while also effectively driving employment and income increases for over 2,600 farmers in Huimin Town and its surrounding areas.
On January 5, 2024, the “Beyond the Physical” · Abolai Ethnic Culture Transmission Hall officially opened for business. As the only comprehensive experiential ethnic culture transmission hall project in the core area of the Jingmai Mountain heritage site, Hall Manager Assistant and Brand Manager Cheng Yuting introduced that the hall will integrate the “ancient tea culture” embedded in the bloodline of the Blang people of Jingmai Mountain for inheritance and promotion. It will integrate contemporary humanistic art, design, and other lifestyle aesthetics into the traditional Blang-style stilt houses, providing a wide range of visitors with service and activity experiences immersed in warmth and nature, deeply connected to the local area.
Strong industrial development, stimulating “surging momentum”
“Gen Z” Xianjin is one of the first tea farmers on Jingmai Mountain to launch a Douyin account for livestreaming e-commerce. Every day at 4 PM, Xianjin puts on exquisite Dai ethnic clothing and applies beautiful makeup; through the lens of the livestream room, she leads her fans through the mountain forests into the ancient tea gardens planted under tall trees, carefully explaining this endless “Jingmai flavor.”
“After the news of the successful World Heritage application was announced, a large number of fans suddenly flooded into the livestream room. Now, a single livestream can generate around 5,000 yuan in sales, and the tea sold through livestreaming already accounts for 40% of our total sales,” Xianjin told reporters. The successful application has allowed the value of Jingmai Mountain to continuously manifest; over 100 young people who had gone away for work have also returned home to start businesses, using live streaming and e-commerce platforms to promote Jingmai Mountain and sell Jingmai ancient tea and local agricultural products across the country.
Over the past year, in its industrial development, Jingmai Mountain has registered national geographic indication products and created tea brands such as “Jingmai Mountain” and “Pu-erh Jingmai Mountain Tea.” Tea prices have risen steadily, driving the average unit price of raw tea in Lancang County to 80 yuan/kg. The total tea planting area in the county has increased to 451,500 mu, and the number of tea processing enterprises has increased to 2,119. In the first half of 2024 alone, the total production of raw tea reached 14,906 tons, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%, with a total output value of 4.016 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%. Digital empowerment is driving the transformation and upgrading of the tea industry; tea processing techniques are continuously improving, and product quality has significantly increased. The nation’s first standardized, clean, intelligent, and homogenized Pu-erh tea production line in Xiaoxinzhai has been completed and is operational, and a smart tea garden management platform has been put into use. External cooperation continues to strengthen; in collaboration with the Maotai Group, the “Pu Mao Hao” Pu-erh tea brand was launched; product research and development cooperation was established with Guangzhou’s “Bama Tea Industry”; the global debut of “Yun Shang Jingmai” Pu-erh tea and “Ding He Jingmai” commemorative tea for the successful World Heritage application took place; and the first Pu-erh tea stock, Lancang Ancient Tea, was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Today, more and more young people are choosing to stay in Jingmai Mountain, either to inherit traditional tea-making techniques and continuously improve tea quality; or to innovate and develop the cultural and creative industry, extending the tea industry chain; or to join the ranks of livestreaming e-commerce, promoting Jingmai Mountain’s fine tea, beautiful scenery, and rich culture to the world through the lens.
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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