Wang Dayong's team select premium coffee seeds. [Photo provided to China Daily]
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).
Greenhouse cultivation of Arabica seedlings in Gaoligong Mountains. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Wang also made a point of teaching local farmers the proper way to drink coffee.
Each year, his coffee estate hosts a harvest festival, where he invites all the local growers to taste the coffee they've cultivated with their own hands.
"Only by learning to appreciate a fine cup of coffee can farmers understand the wide gulf between excellent and inferior varieties and stop blindly opting for disease-resistant, high-yield, but lower-grade strains," he explains.
After years of nurturing the soil, planting over 10,000 trees, and carefully selecting the best coffee varieties, Wang saw his dream begin to take root.
The once-barren slopes of the mountain began flourishing with lush, green coffee trees.
By 2024, his coffee plantation achieved its first harvest of high-quality Arabica beans, which were then processed, roasted, and sold to customers who appreciated the unique flavor that the high-altitude beans possess.
As a result, the sale of these beans quickly became a primary source of income for many in the village; and the mountain village began to draw attention from coffee connoisseurs and eco-tourists alike.
Wu Hua, a cultural new economy professor at Shanghai University, visited Shitizhai multiple times and saw the story of the Gaoligong Mountains as having many layers.
"A dilapidated, abandoned settlement brought back to life; local farmers who had once been forced to leave for city jobs now finding prosperity in their own fields; a barren hillside turning green again; and a coffee industry that was once world-renowned but had fallen into decline is now regaining its strength," she says.
Wu considers the work done by Wang and his team as a new vision for rural revitalization.
"What we've seen in Shitizhai is how biodiversity restoration and specialty agriculture can come together to create harmony between people and nature," she adds.
Today, Wang's days at Shitizhai unfold at a pace set by the mountain's rhythms. He and his team, most of whom followed him from Shenzhen, rarely leave the village.
"It takes 40 minutes to go down the mountain by car. Unless we need to send coffee or welcome guests, we don't leave," he says.
When visitors do make the winding journey up to the estate, which sits at an elevation of 1,800 meters, they get to taste coffee brewed from locally grown beans while taking in the crisp air and lush slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains.
Wang and his team are committed to a holistic approach, which includes researching and breeding coffee varieties and roasting and extraction, ensuring they handle the entire process themselves.
To showcase the charm of his coffee beans, he also opened two cafes in Shenzhen in 2021 and 2024, respectively.
Neither cafe offers takeout or milk-based drinks. The idea is to encourage people to slow down and enjoy a cup of coffee as it is meant to be experienced, Wang says.
"A coffee shop isn't just about selling coffee. It should be a space for people to connect and exchange ideas," Wang explains.
In charting his life's course, Wang chose to "walk back". But to him, this was never an act of retreat but "simply a choice", he says.
Wang believes the countryside holds vast, open spaces for possibilities.
"I don't see the countryside as the opposite of the city. To me, it should be a place where your skills, your talents, and your dreams can fully unfold," he says.
A bird's-eye view of Shitizhai village, in Baoshan city, Yunnan province. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Editor:Qiu Xiaochen
