Village transformation

One of the major tasks in the application work is to rebuild houses in the villages that are too old and decrepit, while maintaining traditional architectural styles.

The village transformation project involves 15 villages. In those traditional villages located in the heart of the applied area, modern building materials are “absolutely forbidden”, said Yang Yun, Party chief of Huimin tounship.

To encourage villagers to keep traditional styles, the county government has made policies to give subsidies when they buy building materials. It has so far provided more than 8 million tiles worth 7.2 million yuan and more than 3,000 cubic meters of wood worth 3 million yuan.

Upgraded industry

While protecting ancient tea gardens, local authorities of Jingmai Mountain have also improved the biodiversity of nearly 2,000 hectares of tea gardens in the tableland areas.

The tableland tea gardens featured high planting density and used chemical fertilizers, so the quality of their products was low, and so was the price.

The county government offers subsidies to growers to let them remove some of the tea bushes and use organic fertilizers. Farmers are also asked to add new tea breeds and grow trees to give shade.

Each hectare of the tableland tea gardens produced 1,200 kilograms of tea in the past, which was sold at below 20 yuan per kilogram. Now it produces only 450 kilograms of tea, but each kg sells at 200 yuan.

Officials of the local government said they have invested significant money and manpower to protect the ancient tea gardens on Jingmai Mountain since the application campaign started, but they need support from top experts who will help them make specific regulations.

They said they will seek multiple approaches to make the application a success.