Breaking new ground
Local officials say the county is now tackling the problem head-on and has been exploring new avenues in recent years.
"We've brought in a company from Hubei province to produce matcha, and we're collaborating with Anhui Agricultural University to develop mellow yellow tea, constantly innovating summer-autumn tea processing," Like Haomao says.
He Yingjun is also experimenting. On part of his plantation, shade nets have been installed to produce the raw material for matcha.
"We signed a contract with a major tea company, producing tea to their standards. If summer-autumn tea is done right, it could account for half our income," he anticipates.
He has already seen summer-autumn tea prices rising. New processing techniques have opened new markets hungry for the raw material to make novel tea drinks or functional extracts.
Beyond the product innovation conducted by tea planters like He, Mabian is also pushing tea tourism.
Kashasha Homestay is the flagship project, consisting of 10 Yi-style courtyards scattered across the tea hills of Fulai village, about an hour's drive from He's tea plantation.
Open the window, and you look out over a sea of clouds and tea fields. The only sounds are the wind and the birds. Rooms are not cheap, but during peak season, they are hard to come by.
"Kashasha Homestay relies entirely on the tea gardens. Without the tea gardens, that place would be barren. There wouldn't be much to see," Like Haomao says.
In 2025, the county's tea-tourism integration project attracted about 45,000 visitors and generated 32 million yuan in revenue, according to local authorities.
Standing in the Baixiang village tea garden, He Yingjun points to a construction site in the distance.
"That's our new factory. Once it's completed, we won't sell any fresh leaves. We'll process everything ourselves and pay taxes here," he says.
The new factory will give him control over the entire process, from fresh leaf to finished product. It will also allow him to experiment with new processing methods without relying on outside facilities. Whether that solves the brand problem, he does not know.
"You do it because you're in it, and you can't just stop," he says.
