A distant view of Dazhe town in Suichang county, Lishui. [Photo by Xiao Da/chinadaily.com.cn]

Dazhe township in Suichang county, Lishui, East China's Zhejiang province is an important tea producing base in China and the hometown of many famous teas.

In the 1970s, the tea industry began to ramp up in Dazhe town and today tea is the main income of local farmers. At present, the town has about 3,333 hectares of tea fields with annual output of more than 1,800 tons and output value of more than 16 million yuan ($2.26 million). A complete industrial chain integrating tea production, processing and sales has been preliminarily formed.

Different from other tea fields that only produce tea, in 2013, Dazhe built a 20-kilometer off-road bicycle riding trail. To date, the town has hosted more than 10 national off-road cycling open championships, attracting tens of thousands of cycling lovers.

Dazhe town is also the cradle of the "revolutionary spirit of southwest Zhejiang". In January 1927, the first Party branch of southwest Zhejiang was born in a primary school in Dazhe, which is now Quanhu Temple.

The town has been restoring and upgrading the temple, actively building a research and study base in recent years in a bid to inherit and carry forward the Chinese revolutionary red culture.

In 2019, Dazhe town launched the innovative integration of "red culture and green tea". Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, local Party members go deep into all aspects of the tea industry to help tea farmers solve practical problems.

"The 'green' industry is the dominant industry and red culture is the hope. Make good use of the green and red resources, and we can see more opportunities," said Ye Shaolei, Party secretary of Dazhe town, in an interview.