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The words "Yan Zengji" are printed on the bottom of the tin tea tube of Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop. I want to know the history. Thank you! ((The tea canister is decades old)

Zhang Shuicun: Born in January 1927, he is from Anxi, Fujian and comes from a tea family. Four brothers from his father’s generation founded the “Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop”

In the first half of the 20th century, it was the largest tea shop in Myanmar. Tea importers and sellers. After World War II, "Zhang Yuanmei" tea shop in Xiamen became the head office. In 1947, 20-year-old Zhang Shuicun began to manage "Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop" in Xiamen. After the public-private partnership in 1956, Zhang Shuicun went to the Xiamen Office of China Tea, the predecessor of Xiamen Tea Import and Export Co., Ltd., and later served as the manager of the tea distribution department. Zhang Shuicun focused on the review and operation management of oolong tea. In 1958, he developed the "coal instead of charcoal tea roasting" process, which was later widely used in Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Shantou and other major oolong tea production and sales areas. In 2002, he wrote China's first oolong tea book - "Chinese Oolong Tea". "Office Building" June 2013 Issue · Wen Tu stood on the balcony of Zhang Shuicun's high-rise home on Hubin North Road, Xiamen. In the hazy water vapor of the early summer rainy season, he looked at the city's tall buildings from a distance. The scene of "Fire Fishing Fire" is already a scenery of the past, and the vastness The lake is connected to the ocean, and in the silence, you can imagine the bustle of merchant ships in the past. This kind of excitement continues in a modern way, and the changes of the times also continue. Zhang Shuicun witnessed the changes of these times with his own eyes. What has changed is his own life. "Perhaps no island along this winding stretch of coast has ever had a more interesting and exciting story than this one, which is only eight miles wide and where many sensational events have occurred in and adjacent to it. It is A theater and strategic location that has experienced countless brutal struggles, it is a gathering place for fierce pirates and cruel adventurers... It is a battlefield and strategic location that has experienced countless brutal struggles. "November 8, 1911. Rev. Philp, pastor of the American Reformed Church

Wilson

Pilcher wrote in the preface of his "Xiamen City Chronicle-The History and Reality of China's First Opening Port" The above passage. Zhang Shuicun and his fathers also benefited from this open port and worked hard to carve out their own world in the gaps of historical waves. Looking at the history of Chinese Oolong tea, their names have been engraved on it. In this sense, they are also the early adventurers of this city. The Rise and Fall of Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop Zhang Shuicun was born in Anxi, a tea town, in January 1927. He is 87 years old, has good hearing and vision, and is in good health. He greeted me with a cup of traditionally baked Tieguanyin. The tea set used was a tea set with "Zhang Yuanmei Tea Store" written on it. He said that his son had asked someone to burn it for more than ten years. This tea set seems to be a kind of nostalgia. Today, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop has already slipped into history and become a story. We can only read this story about oolong tea and the ups and downs of a port city with the fragrance of a cup of tea. Since 1610, Xiamen merchants shipped Wuyi tea to Java and sold it to the Dutch, and then transferred it to the European market for sale. By 1644, the British set up a trading agency in Xiamen and began to transport Wuyi tea and oolong tea from Xiamen to European and American countries for sale. The Xiamen dialect word "tea" is spelled as "Tea", which has become the special word for tea in the West today. As early as the early 17th century, foreigners already knew that Xiamen was the export port of Chinese tea, so they frequently traveled to and from Xiamen for tea trade. . As a result, Xiamen became China's first important port for exporting tea by sea, and it was also the distribution center for the tea trade between Fujian and Taiwan. This traditional oolong tea processing and trade port is also known as the maritime "Silk Road" of tea. Geographical conditions and historical opportunities have contributed to the glory of some tea merchants. After the European and American markets banned the import of Xiamen Oolong tea due to the decline in quality, overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia continued to sell and drink tea from their hometown due to their patriotism and love for their hometown, and Oolong tea became the tea sold by overseas Chinese. At this time, Zhang Shuicun's fathers began to appear in historical stories. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Shuicun's parents had to leave their hometown to seek life due to poverty. His uncle Zhang Caishan and his father Zhang Caifeng first traveled south to Singapore with their fellow villagers. They worked in a rice factory during the day and pulled a rickshaw at night, but they still earned a meager income. In 1904, Zhang Caishan moved to Myanmar to open up wasteland and grow fruits and vegetables, barely making a living. In 1911, he returned to his hometown to get married, and took his newlywed wife and two brothers Zhang Caifeng and Zhang Caiyun to Myanmar to assist in the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables, and at the same time accumulated business experience in Myanmar.

In 1921, Zhang Caiyun returned to Anxi to get married. He heard that there were several tea houses in his hometown that were operating tea from his hometown in Nanyang. They not only had good sales but also made huge profits. He also came up with the idea of ??operating tea in Myanmar. He established Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company in Anxi with the business name "Zhang Yuanmei" and the trademark "White Haired Monkey". After the establishment of the tea shop, the Zhang brothers first refined 24 pieces of tea, which were escorted by Zhang Cainan to Yangon, Myanmar for sale. However, because it was a new brand, the sales of the tea were not smooth. The Zhang brothers summed up their experience and decided that Zhang Cainan would be in charge of tea purchase and processing in Anxi, while Zhang Caiyun would be in charge of sales in Myanmar. In 1922, after Zhang Caiyun arrived in Yangon, Myanmar, he believed that opening a store and waiting for customers to come would be passive and difficult to promote his brand. So he went alone to various towns in Myanmar to sell tea, even getting involved in remote towns. He also entrusted Yangon's famous tea shop "Ji Fa Hao" to sell his tea as an agent. A few years later, Zhang Yuanmei’s sales in Myanmar gradually opened up. In the 1930s, several Xiamen tea shops that supplied Wuyi tea for the Burmese market were harassed by bandits and did not dare to go to northern Fujian to purchase tea. This caused a shortage of Wuyi tea, but gave the Zhang brothers, who dealt in Anxi tea, an excellent opportunity. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they occupied most of Myanmar's tea market. In 1931, the Zhang brothers established a tea wholesale business in Yangon, and at the same time applied to the Myanmar government to register the "White Haired Monkey" trademark, beginning a period of large-scale expansion of the Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company. In order to adapt to business development, the Zhang brothers established a tea re-export and processing place in Xiamen, a tea trading port, in 1932 to support the production, transportation and sales of their own tea shop. After the "July 7 Marco Polo Bridge Incident", because Xiamen was occupied by the Japanese, the tea shops closed down. The Kuomintang government implemented unified purchasing and marketing of tea, and the China Tea Company was responsible for the operation. It established a tea management agency in Quanzhou to control the operation of oolong tea. Taking into account possible transportation difficulties during wartime, the Zhang brothers immediately set up tea transfer depots in Hong Kong and Quanzhou to open up new transportation channels for wartime sales. Some oolong tea was exported to Hong Kong and Nanyang through the Quanzhou port. On the other hand, the Zhang brothers knew the importance of tea supply. They saw the opportunity and took advantage of the war to not only purchase large quantities of tea, but also purchased Xiuyan, Qingshiyan, and Tudigongyan in Wuyi Mountain since 1939. Some of the more famous tea rocks were rented, and a large tea factory was also purchased on Chishi Street in Chong'an (today's Wuyishan City) to facilitate the refining and processing of the acquired tea. At this time, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company was already well-known in Myanmar. The annual sales volume of tea under the trademark "White Monkey" reached more than 4,000 boxes, equivalent to more than 70 tons. The Zhang brothers work together in the tea business. They insist on producing "high-quality and affordable" tea, such as "Qishan Cave White-haired Monkey" in iron boxes, "Qishan Cave Ticong Souchong" and "Qishan Cave Ticong Souchong" in paper packaging. "Treasure Country Narcissus"; they also spare no effort to locally produce "high quality and low price" products under the brands of "Wanpu" and "Fuji", occupying the market from high-end to low-end, making it impossible for foreign tea companies to compete with them. Competing, and also winning business competition due to small profits but quick turnover.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company dominated the Myanmar market and became the largest tea importer and seller in Myanmar. But Zhang Yuanmei’s tea business did not always go smoothly in the war-torn times. In the autumn of 1941, the tea factory and residence of Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company in Anxi were looted by bandits, causing heavy losses. After the outbreak of World War II, the Zhang brothers were forced to abandon Myanmar and embark on their escape journey back to China. They returned home via Yunnan. After weighing the situation, the Zhang brothers gave up the tea transfer station in Quanzhou and chose to settle in Zhangzhou, a city with abundant products and large tea sales. In 1942, they founded Zhang Yuanmei Tea Shop in Zhangzhou. With mature business model and experience, coupled with the previous brand reputation, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company made a comeback and soon became a well-known tea merchant in southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong. Children of tea merchants have long taken charge. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company’s operating agencies in Xiamen, Hong Kong, Myanmar and other places resumed business. The Zhang brothers saw the gathering of merchants in Xiamen and the convenient port conditions, so they designated the tea shop in Xiamen as the head office of Zhang Yuanmei Tea House. Zhang Caiyun was appointed as the general manager, responsible for leading the tea shops and tea factories in each port, while also operating domestic wholesale and retail, Buying and selling on behalf of customers, handling tea export business, etc. The business of Xiamen Zhangyuanmei Tea Shop has developed rapidly, even surpassing some century-old brands.

Because they have a large number of high-quality supplies from Wuyi Mountain and adhere to the tradition of "quality first, appropriate pricing, and diligent management", Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company's "Wuyi Xiuyan Laocong Narcissus" and "Sanyin Narcissus" quickly occupied Xiamen Most of the consumer markets for Wuyi tea are in the Zhangzhou area, while the mid- to low-end teas produced by tea shops sell well in the Zhangzhou area. The Zhang brothers then expanded the tea market in Guangxi and Guangdong, and established a tea sales agency in Guangzhou in 1947. At this time, Hong Kong's Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company switched to re-exporting its own tea for customers. At the same time, it also sold large quantities of black tea and oolong tea to various parts of Europe for Taiwanese tea merchants. The business was very prosperous, and the annual sales volume of tea was more than 10,000 pieces. This was the most glorious era for Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company. The tea gardens and tea factories of the tea shop are located in Wuyi Mountain and Anxi tea areas, while the tea shops are located in Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Hong Kong, Yangon, Myanmar and Guangzhou. The annual self-sold tea has reached more than 250 tons. In order to facilitate operation and management, improve efficiency, and promote the reproduction of family descendants, the Zhang brothers decided to implement separate operations for the operating agencies in various places and take responsibility for their own profits and losses. The second generation of Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company began to enter history. Zhang Shuicun is one of them. His father is Zhang Caifeng, the second wife. Changfang manages Wuyishan Tea Rock Garden, tea factory and Hong Kong Tea Shop, Second Room manages the Xiamen Head Office, and the tea shops in Zhangzhou and Yangon belong to Third Room and Fourth Room respectively. Zhang Shuicun took charge of the Xiamen Tea Shop. Due to lack of manpower, he hired his uncle Zhang Caiyun as the manager again. It was not until he traveled south to Myanmar in 1948 that Zhang Shuicun officially became the manager. Zhang Shuicun was born in Anxi, an oolong tea producing area, and also grew up in Anxi. In 1945, he came to Xiamen when he graduated from high school at the age of 18. He said that although he had seen the process of making tea since he was a child, he really understood how to make tea after he took over the Xiamen Head Office of Zhang Yuanmei in 1947. “I had to learn, because when I was going to do business, I had to understand it, so that I would not be fooled. "Zhang Shuicun said, "It is not difficult to learn tea seriously." At the age of 20, he was in charge of the business of Zhang Yuanmei's Xiamen head office. At that time, there were more than a dozen employees in the store, and the business scale was not small. He still remembers the tea shop's sales every year. There are more than 1,000 boxes of Myanmar tea, each box weighing 36 kilograms. After liberation, Zhang Yuanmei's Xiamen Head Office and Zhangzhou Tea Company both participated in public-private partnerships. Hong Kong Tea Company established Fujian Tea Company and later established its own company. The Zhang Yuanmei tea shop in Myanmar closed down after being taken over by the Myanmar government in 1962. Although the descendants of the Zhang family established tea brands in Myanmar, including Yangon Sammei and Yuanfa, and operated tea mountains in northern Myanmar, the business name "Zhang Yuanmei" Has disappeared into history. Witnessing the ups and downs of a commercial street, Zhang Shuicun recalled when he was young, he would always talk about the streets in the Haikou area of ??Xiamen in the past. The cross street where Shuixian Road, Zhenbang Road and Zhongshan Road intersected was the financial and trade center of Xiamen. There were many black market banks and tea houses. There are many, because ships from Southeast Asia are parked at the Taikoo Pier nearby, and tourists coming to Gulangyu Island also come ashore in this area, so it has become a prosperous place for commerce. Zhang Yuanmei’s Xiamen head office is also in this neighborhood. In this era when oolong tea has withdrawn from the European and American markets, it is the most golden era for tea merchants operating in Southeast Asia and local businesses. In the first half of the 20th century, there were thirty or forty tea shops and teahouses selling tea in Xiamen, which was rare in the country. Even cigarette stalls, vendors and grocery stores also sold tea. The prosperity of its industry is evident. Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company operates domestic and foreign sales business. Because it has affiliated stores abroad, has strong funds and a large business scale, it has become a representative of the tea industry. Although Zhang Yuanmei does not have the longest entrepreneurial history, in terms of scale and reputation, the older generation in Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and southern Fujian still have traces of their memories. For example, in the era when rock names and tea product names became synonymous with tea shops. Tea shops own tea mountains and rocks in the place of origin, and they all use their own rock names before the product name. The Wuyi rock tea sold by Zhang Yuanmei is called "Wuyi Xiuyan Laocong Shuixian" and "Sanyin Shuixian" - this also makes The old tea drinkers in Xiamen never forget it. In 1956, Zhang Yuanmei Tea Company established a public-private partnership with Xiamen Tea Import and Export Company. In 1959, Zhang Shuicun worked as a manager at the main tea store on Shuixian Road, responsible for tea processing and sales management. He returned to his old place and engaged in the familiar business of the past. In 1959, when the "Haidi Tea Factory" familiar to Xiamen people began to exist, Zhang Shuicun's name was associated with this name.

"In the 1970s, tea purchases were all allocated based on household registration, and a family could only buy a few taels..."

In 1984, after tea was opened to free trade, Xiamen Tea Import and Export Company was opened at No. 28 Shuixian Road "Xiamen Tea Import and Export Trading Company" operates the wholesale and retail of domestic tea. This store is also managed by Zhang Shuicun. There are more than ten employees in the store. The business covers a large area. In addition to Xiamen, it also goes to Yunxiao and Dongshan in Zhangzhou. , Zhao'an and Chaoshan areas, sales performance is very good. In addition to witnessing the ups and downs of one tea species on the same street, Zhang Shuicun talked about the changes in his residence after coming to Xiamen as a boy. That is also a story - his earliest residence was on Lushan Road on Lujiang Road, "now it has been demolished." , then moved to Houjiangdai, was demolished and then moved to Yueyang Community, and then lived in the current place. Seeing the city being built with tall buildings and roads, more than sixty years was just a blink of an eye in history. For him, it was already more than half of his life, from his youth to his twilight years. The Reform of Oolong Tea Baking When it comes to the reform of oolong tea baking technology, Zhang Shuicun is also a name engraved in the history books. Due to the increasingly tight supply of charcoal for roasting tea leaves, it is imperative to replace charcoal roasted tea with coal. However, the smell of burning coal is combined with the tea leaves that are most likely to absorb odor when roasted together. How to remove the smell of coal while maintaining the original taste of tea? This is a big problem. In 1958, Zhang Shuicun realized by thinking and speculating on the current situation of tea roasting with charcoal: If you build a coal stove, turn the pot upside down on the stove, seal the joints with dust, and the gas will be discharged through a separate flue, so that The temperature of the fire rising from the pot is the same as the temperature of the charcoal in the baking cave. After preliminary tests, the feasibility of this method was confirmed. After continuous exploration and testing, Zhang Shuicun finally mastered the best operation method of using coal to roast tea, and it was officially put into production at the end of 1958. This reform not only saves a lot of wood, but is also easy to operate. Make a fire immediately when you want to roast tea, and stop the fire at any time when you don't want to roast tea. There is no time limit, and the labor intensity is greatly reduced. In addition, using coal to roast tea is faster and safer than traditional methods, and it also greatly improves the tea production environment and hygienic conditions. After this technology was popularized, colleagues from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Shantou and other places came to observe and learn from it. Today, oolong tea producing areas still use this method to bake tea. After replacing charcoal with coal for roasting tea, although there is no worry about fuel shortage, this is a backward manual production process after all, which is not suitable for large-scale production needs. When tea needs to be roasted at high temperature, only two or three steel pipes are burned to deliver heat. It will be burned out. In 1974, when Zhang Shuicun was working in the factory, he also participated in the reform of the blast furnace of the tea dryer and improved the method of using electricity instead of blast furnace to send hot air to roast tea. A Private History in the First Oolong Tea Book After Zhang Shuicun retired from the Xiamen Tea Company in 1987, he was retained by the company until 1992, and then worked until 1996 before he truly retired. At this time, the Xiamen Tea Association was established not long ago, and he continued to work for the Tea Association for more than ten years. "There is probably no tea person older than me in the Xiamen Tea Association..." The inexplicable story led Zhang Shuicun to write China's first monograph on oolong tea - "Chinese Oolong Tea". The content of the book includes the origin, production, identification, storage and tasting of oolong tea as well as the production and marketing history of oolong tea in China. Tea, famous varieties... He talked about the family history, oolong tea export to domestic sales, from prosperity to decline and then to prosperity again. Many of them were personal experiences, and some were very practical. "Actually, I didn't specifically want to write a tea book. I just published a few articles about tea and wanted to sort them out..." Zhang Shuicun explained his original intention this way. There are three articles in the book about the era represented by the leaders of Xiamen's oolong tea industry: Yang Wenpu Tea House, founded in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, closed down in the 1930s, which represented the period when oolong tea was popular in Europe and the United States; Zhang Yuanmei, founded in the 1920s The tea shop represents the period when oolong tea was sold overseas; and the Xiamen Tea Company, where Zhang Shuicun worked for most of his life, represents the period of oolong tea fever in Japan. The history of the city of Xiamen and oolong tea was clearly laid out by Zhang Shuicun. Zhang Shuicun used old newspapers as a demonstration to show us the paper packaging of 150 grams of oolong tea in the past and the small tea packages of 5 to 10 grams. Such tea can be brewed once in one bag, which is convenient for "tea table boys" and small households. Zhang Shuicun said that tea packaged in this way is also for wholesale, and hawkers and teahouses can wholesale some for retail. On Zhang Shuicun’s tea table, there are many teas from all over the world.

He drinks tea every day, and he still likes to drink oolong tea, especially the traditional authentic Tieguanyin from his hometown of Anxi, and Wuyi rock tea. On the wall of the living room hangs the words "Integrity, Beauty and Respect" written by the famous tea scholar Zhuang Wanfang, who was both a teacher and friend of Zhang Shuicun. This is the Chinese tea virtue that Zhuang Wanfang understands. Zhang Shuicun said that he understood and agreed. "The spring water is of beautiful quality and can preserve the fragrance of tea." The words embedded with Zhang Shuicun's name were also written by Zhuang Wanfang. Zhang Shuicun took out a precious old photo. It was the Spring Festival of 1953, a photo of him with his cousin and the guys from Zhang Yuanmei’s Xiamen Tea Shop. The people in the old photos are young and handsome, either wearing fashionable suits or traditional youth attire. That is a legendary story of an era, on the legendary Lujiang Road in Xiamen. "The stories of some events are engraved on stones or carved on archways. Unfortunately, they have been destroyed in time. It is estimated that they are at least three hundred years old... No matter how much Xiamen can present to the world (it has indeed presented a lot), only what it presents Two words given to the English language are enough to make it immortal throughout the ages. Rev. Philp Wilson

One of the two words Pilcher mentioned is tea, the long and mellow aroma of oolong tea. Here, Zhang Shuicun and his fathers also presented to history stories about their tea family and oolong tea. Some stories may have been annihilated, but looking back at the passing time, the glory and exploration of the last century have not actually been annihilated. They still remain in the fragrance of tea, being explored and savored by future generations...