21 officials, who are respectively in charge of tea industry in 13 developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, came to Maliangping Village, Shuiyuesi Town, Xingshan County, and visited its White Tea Seedling Propagation Base on November 18, 2013.

　　The production base began its construction in 2012 with 2.2 million RMB invested by the Ministry of Agriculture. It has 100 mu high-standard and high-efficient fields for white tea seedling propagation, so as to meet the needs for yearly seedling scion of 5000 mu white tea of the whole county. The female parent of the seedlings in the base is from an ancient white tea tree which has been alive for more than 200 years in Longtan Village, Gaoqiao Township, Xingshan County. The tea is favored by the public for its amino acid content that is significantly higher than that of other national famous white teas. Xingshan County has signed a cooperation agreement with Tea Research Institution of China to cultivate local varieties depending on technological support. And at present, Xingshan County has established a provincial largest white tea production base with complete range of varieties and the best tea quality.

　　In recent years, Xingshan County has invested a great amount of money to build its tea industry as one of the five characteristic industries helping semi-alpine planters increase their incomes. 10 million RMB has been used to the renovation of the old tea gardens. As a result, tea yield per mu has increased from the original 13 kilograms to 48 kilograms and the average increment per mu has amounted to 2000 RMB or more. In the meanwhile, 10 million RMB has been invested to expand white tea production bases in Xiakou Town and Shuiyuesi Town, assisting planters to implement unified planning, varieties, planting as well as technology. The County Government has also provided free seedlings and fertilizers to help build another 17 thousand mu white tea fields. Another 10 million RMB has been given support to the development of the leading enterprises in tea industry as well as specialized cooperatives. So far, 15 specialized cooperatives have been established, involving 80 percent out of 32 thousand tea planters. The cooperatives offer social services for the planters and implement tractor-ploughing, mechanical defense and plucking. There also exist provincial leading enterprises, such as Zhao Jun Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. The tea products of it enjoy good fame around the nation.

　　According to Huang Demiao, the Director of the Specialty Bureau of Xingshan County, among the tea gardens with the coverage of 40 thousand mu, white tea fields take up 17 thousand mu, which includes a plucking area of 5000 mu. Although the rate of total white tea production accounts for only 10 percent out of the overall tea production of 850 tons, it brings half of the 51 million RMB to all the planters. (Correspondents: Zou Yuanjing and Li Shuju)