From HK to tea producer in Guangdong

William Yu is expecting to build his tea company into a bench mark in the tea industry — at least in Zhaoqing, in the western part of Guangdong province — and play a role in helping build the rural economy.

The entrepreneur from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region now runs a tea plantation of more than 800,000 square meters in rural Huaiji county, which is under the administration of Zhaoqing, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Yu's company now mainly plants, processes and sells Oolong tea. After years of development, his plantation now produces  more than 20,000 kilograms of teas annually. 

In many processes of tea production, Yu still insists on doing things by hand to preserve traditional culture and crafts.

"Meanwhile I hope to recruit more local residents and help promote employment," he said.

"After I arrived in Guangdong, I found more people to contact and more things to see than I had in Hong Kong, and so the vision is broadened," Yu said.

"Living in the cities of Guangdong is more convenient than in Hong Kong," he said, adding that more young people from Hong Kong should come to the mainland and learn more about the development of the country.

"They can come to have a look first before they decide whether to work or start a business on the mainland," he said.

Yu became an officer of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong after his university graduation eight years ago. But he immediately resigned and went to Huaiji to run the tea plantation as his father had hoped when investing and building it in 1993.