Tea plucking female have a taste of tea leaf picking at  baishaxi tea garden in Anhua county last month.  Chatting and laughing, they looked small among the lush, terraced fields, submerged in green. The leaves they picked will be processed into dark tea after close to a dozen complex procedures, including spreading, heating, kneading, fermenting and drying. While the color of the leaves turns dark, the fresh aroma also becomes a strong, pure fragrance when it rises from a cup of glowing red tea. The transformation from fresh leaves to ready-to-sell products generally takes five to 12 months, based on the different requirements of subcategories. Over the last 1,000 years, the manufacturing process of Anhua dark tea has been passed down from generation to generation, and it was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008. A major place of origin for Chinese dark tea, Anhua produced 85,000 metric tons last year, with an output value of 23 billion yuan ($3.5 billion), according to the county government. Its products are sold worldwide. In 2019, Hunan released a plan to construct characteristic agricultural towns by offering preferential policies in land use, finance and human resources. It wanted to drive development of rural areas under the framework of rural vitalization. Tianzhuang was one of 15 places selected for the program. It has now developed a tea-related industrial chain from production and sales, agricultural scientific research and healthcare, to tea-related culture and the ecotourism industry. Anhua welcomed 26,000 tourist trips during the holiday, reaping tourism revenue of 25.2 million yuan, according to the county government. The booming tea businesses also benefit farmers. More than 100,000 people from poor families in Anhua have escaped poverty by joining tea-related industries. Developing industries in rural areas based on their special resources is an important measure in realizing the country's rural vitalization strategy, according to the central rural work conference held in Beijing in December. To improve brand awareness, the county government innovated by producing more high value-added commodities, including tea-sourced snacks, beverages and cosmetics. Anhua also built the country's first dark tea vocational school and dark tea research institute.