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The 14th Guilin Gongcheng Oil Tea Cultural Festival was launched in Gongcheng Yao autonomous county, Guilin, Guangxi, on May 21, which coincides with International Tea Day. Representatives from eight ethnic minority counties, including Yao, Miao, Dong, and Zhuang, gathered in Guangxi to showcase different oil-tea-making techniques and products.
At the event, compatriots dressed in traditional Yao costumes sang and danced to celebrate the festival. Participating teams demonstrated oil-tea-making techniques at food stalls and offered visitors delicious complementary pastries like sticky rice cakes, all infused with excellent color, aroma, and taste, attracting crowds to taste the fragrant tea.
The tradition of making oil tea in Gongcheng dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), with a history of over 1,000 years. Today, Gongcheng oil tea has developed unique tea rituals, customs, and etiquette, becoming the most representative example of "Yao oil-tea customs" and Guangxi's "oil-tea making," listed in the autonomous region and national-level intangible cultural heritage representative project lists.
In 2023, Gongcheng had an oil-tea raw material planting area of approximately 230,000 mu (15,333 hectares), with a production exceeding 150,000 metric tons. Currently, there are seven factory-scale enterprises producing Gongcheng oil tea in the county, over 200 auxiliary processing workshops, and more than 1,800 stores across Guilin, generating a total annual revenue of about 4 billion yuan ($553 million) primarily from the oil-tea business.
The 14th Guilin Gongcheng Oil Tea Cultural Festival is launched in Gongcheng Yao autonomous county, Guilin, Guangxi, on May 21, the International Tea Day. [Photo by Wang Zhanfei/Guilin Daily]
