68th Anniversary of the Menghai Factory -- trans. of 勐海茶厂68年庆：以“茶”之名的相

A partial translation a Chinese language news article.
Original source text: http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/b/2 … 6398.shtml

November 4th, 2008

"68 years is not long, just enough to figure out how to make a good cup of tea; 68 years is a long time, is has been a golden era for generations of tea people..." It was against a backdrop of just this sort of feeling that on November 1st the well-known domestic enterprises Yunnan Dayi Tea Group‘s Menghai tea factory located in Menghai, Xishuangbanna held its 68th anniversary celebrations.

On the "Tea Industry Top 100" list recently published by the Chinese Tea Marketing Association(http://www.ctma.com.cn/), Dayi is number 3, and in the production-oriented enterprises and private enterprises lists it holds first place. Whether one speaks of Yunnan Pu'er tea, or the recent history of the development of the modern Chinese tea industry, the core of Dayi's production system -- Menghai factory -- cannot but be mentioned. In 1940 dozens of young tea technicians from across the country who were appointed by the government spent almost a month going from Kunming to malaria infested Menghai (at the time called Fohai.), One of the most prominent was Fan Heyue, a graduate of the University of Paris in France, who, along with the "Modern tea sage," Mr. Wu Juenong co-authored the book "Questions on Chinese Tea." Another was Zhang Shicheng who graduated from Qinghua University. They later became the first tea factory director and chief engineer respectively. To ensure a smooth arrival in this high-quality large-leaf tea producing area, they were provided with a military escort. Persevering in the fight against bandits and malaria, they established a professional-tea factory with surprising speed, and successfully marketed their products to South and Southeast Asia. Goods and profits received for the sale or trade of their products were used to support efforts in the Anti-Japanese War going on at the time.

In the course of 68 years of development, although the black tea and green tea established places as market leaders, The Menghai tea factory established its own unique place in the Chinese tea industry and pushed Yunnan Pu'er tea towards its peak. During this time the factory developed an important symbol: the early "round tea" of the Menghai tea factory which was an important foundation for the product which later became a representative product of Yunnan Province: the "Seven Sons Yunnan tea cake," or qizibing. In the 1970s, with the success of the new post processing fermentation process, a monument in the history of the development of Pu'er tea was established, and at the same time the huge cooked Pu'er market was opened up.  From the 1950s to the 1990s, the products of this factory accounted for the vast majority of the market share for aged tea around the world. 7542 recipe tea cakes and 7572 recipe tea cakes are examples of a number of classic products which were regarded by the market and the industry as "standards of cooked Pu'er Tea and raw Pu'er Tea products." In 2008, the Yunnan Province Tea Processing Research Center was established at this factory; and in the same year the "Dayi Tea Production Technique"  as a representative for Pu'er tea was added to the "national level intangible cultural heritage list."

I have translated only the first 3 of 6 paragraphs, which I found to be of interest. The rest of the article is about creating a harmonious society and self congratulatory ramblings by company bigwigs. Also mention quickly are tea tasting activities for the local school children and a tea dance put on by same.