Love for coffee revitalizes a mountain

Caffeine enthusiast returns to rural roots, to use his passion to bring prosperity and help save an ecosystem, Yang Feiyue reports.

In 2017, when Wang Dayong flew a drone over Shitizhai, a village nestled on the eastern slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains, the footage revealed what appeared to be a scar gouged into the earth's surface.

"There were barren stretches of land that had been overworked and abused," recalls the man in his 50s.

The once-scarred mountain in Baoshan city, southwestern Yunnan province, has been nurtured back to its natural state over the past few years.

The barren slopes are lush with rows of carefully planted coffee trees interspersed with towering native species that provide the perfect environment for growing highquality coffee beans.

The revitalization of the area reveals nature's astonishing power to regenerate, which Wang set in motion after he discovered the land's rich, overlooked coffee history.

Wang left his job as a TV cameraman in 2013 and launched a documentary studio in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Over a decade, he told stories of new urban developments, vanishing traditions, and communities grappling with change.

He came to this mountainous area a few years ago for a business trip and engaged with the locals. That's how he learned about the once-splendid coffee history dating back to the 1920s.

"I love coffee and was intrigued to delve deeper," he recalls.

He learned that coffee was introduced to Yunnan in the early 20th century, and over the subsequent decades, coffee cultivation had developed into an influential industry. Yunnan's high-altitude regions, along with its unique climate conditions, proved to be ideal for cultivating Arabica coffee.

Around 99 percent of China's coffee production is concentrated in the Nujiang and Lancang river valleys in Yunnan. The coffee from the Gaoligong Mountains region gained significant recognition in the last century and was hailed as "black gold "when it was awarded the Eureka Gold Medal at the international Eureka expo in Brussels, Belgium, in 1993.

After learning the history, Wang became motivated to make a documentary in 2017, tracing China's coffee history and highlighting the unique Yunnan coffee and its special place in the global market.

As he explored further, it pained him to see how the mountainside, once lush with coffee plants, had suffered from excessive farming, and the villages scattered along the valleys had been abandoned.

Sitting in the Nujiang River valley, the Gaoligong Mountains rise like an immense wall, blocking the warm, moist air currents from the Indian Ocean on the western slopes. This natural barrier gives rise to an extraordinary microclimate on the valley's eastern side, which is marked by dramatic temperature differences between day and night, making it ideal for growing premium Arabica coffee.

Yet, in the race for profits and higher yields, shortsighted practices took hold. Farmers began tightly planting coffee plants together, increasing the density from just 60 trees per tenth of a hectare to more than 330.

To save on labor, farmers also began harvesting coffee cherries in one single, indiscriminate sweep, regardless of differences in ripeness and quality. When the coffee market slumped, many locals cut down their decades-old, prize-winning Arabica trees to make room for fruits and vegetables to survive.

Born to a village family in Central China's Henan province, Wang says he has a natural affinity for rural regions, not to mention that places like Gaoligong Mountains are endowed with superb geological and environmental conditions.

"I have a deep emotional connection to rural areas," he says.

Beyond nostalgia, the explosive growth of coffee consumption in China since 2018 exposed an immense potential for Wang. It inspired him to leave behind his successful studio in Shenzhen and settle in the remote mountains.

Additionally, his documentary caught the attention of local authorities, and they readily accepted Wang's proposal to restore Shitizhai to its glory through coffee plantations.

"We were entering a new track and I thought, if not now, then when?" he says, adding that he wanted to make a difference, and not just save this village but drive change across the entire coffee industry.

With the support of his family — his wife is also a coffee enthusiast — Wang brought his family and a team to Shitizhai.

"We lived in a tent when we first arrived. The conditions were basic, but the beauty and tranquility of the mountains were unparalleled," he recalls.

He set three main goals for his venture: restore the land's natural power, reshape local coffee bean production, and revitalize the rural value.

The first step was to restore the power of the land.

His team worked tirelessly to restore biodiversity in the area by introducing native tree species that would provide shade for the coffee plants while also restoring the delicate ecosystem.

He also ensured that no pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers were used, focusing on ecological farming and reforestation.

Then, they removed the outdated catimor, or hybrid, beans and replaced them with Arabica, a higher-quality bean that thrives in shaded, cooler environments.

"Arabica beans are special. They need the right altitude, the right shade, and the right ecosystem," Wang says.

When coffee cherries ripen, farmers must pick them one by one, carefully ensuring the skins remain intact and no stalks are left attached.

Through such meticulous harvesting practices alone, the total yield value has jumped from around 3,000 yuan ($417) to nearly 5,000 yuan per mu (0.067 hectare).