Fulaqing Group: A Leaf’s Northward Journey
How a southern tea leaf took root at 35°N, connecting Fulaqing's research heritage, industrial growth and cultural story.
A leaf's northward journey
Fulaqing Group's history is rooted in the project to introduce southern tea to northern China. In 1954, while speaking with Shandong Party secretary Tan Qilong in Zhejiang, Mao Zedong suggested bringing southern tea plants to Shandong. The programme formally began in 1956, with initial trials in Qingdao, Rizhao and Linyi. An exceptionally severe cold wave left few gardens intact. After a decade of difficult work, the project succeeded in Ju County in 1966. Huangshan population tea plants took root there in 1968, marking a remarkable movement of tea cultivation three degrees farther north.
From a research institution to a business group
In 1978, the Shandong provincial government approved the Linyi District Tea Experiment and Research Station at Mapoling, Xiazhuang, Ju County. The source describes it as the only tea research institution north of the Yangtze at the time. Researchers worked on the barren ridge, repeatedly testing sowing, winter protection and tea processing to establish a scientific foundation for northern tea cultivation. In 1993, the station's factory merged with three tea factories in Ju County to form Shandong Fulaqing Tea Factory, turning a local research institution into a market-facing production business. Restructuring in 2004 created Shandong Fulaqing Tea Co., Ltd. This account records the formation of Fulaqing Group the following year, with activities gradually extending into cultural tourism, catering, travel and wellness. Wang Jiayang, former president of the China International Tea Culture Research Association, wrote the inscription: ‘Shandong Fulaqing, the finest tea north of the Yangtze.’
Friendship through tea
In 1983, with approval from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Linyi District Tea Experiment and Research Station sent 300 tea seedlings to the DPRK, building a bridge of friendship through tea.
Sharing northern tea with the world
Today, Fulaqing Group is a key provincial agricultural industrialisation enterprise with total investment of RMB 1.32 billion, more than 3,000 mu of company-owned organic tea gardens and 10,000 mu of associated tea bases. It has received recognition for national tea standardisation and ecological demonstration gardens, as well as organic food certification in China. Through cross-border commerce and cultural storytelling, the group seeks to build a distinctive brand and share the aroma of tea from 35°N around the world.
Source: the company historical archive, “Fulaqing Group: A Leaf's Northward Journey”. Dates follow the original account.
