10th Feb, 2018
First Published on Asia Pacific Focus By Pan Zurong
The Aigburth Estate in an alpine tea plantation with a history of nearly one century. Photo by Pan Zurong from AP-Focus
On a daybreak in July, 2014, on the Suriyakanda (AKA "Sunshine Hills" in local language) side of the Sinharaja Forest Reserve - the largest World Natural Heritage in Asia - the first ray of sunshine casted down as usual.
However, to over 300 local farmers living off the tea farms generation after generation, this day was quite different. Zhongtian Dinghui (PVT) LTD., a Chinese-owned company, officially took over the Suriyakanda Plantation they work for, adding new life and vigor to this ancient tea plantation where the plucking of tea leaves had been suspended long ago, and also bringing hope and expectations to the local Tamil tea farmers.
Villagers of the Sunshine Hills Welcoming Zhongtian Dinghui with a Parade
While talking about the taking-over of the plantation, the Executive Director of Zhongtian Dinghui (PVT) LTD., Mr. Wei Zhongfeng, expressed some deep feelings. During an interview with the reporter, Mr. Wei said that when the local tea farmers heard about a Chinese company taking part in the investment and management of the plantation in May, 2015, they held a ceremony as festive as a new year parade, welcoming the group of investors led by our Chairman Mr. Wu Ai'ping with most formal and conventional Tamil rituals, and the high-pitched traditional folk songs long lingered in the rain forest of Sinharaja. The priest of a Tamil temple gave his blessings and offered flowers to express the profound gratitude on behalf of the tea farmers, and new tea trees were planted in the plantation. The memory was so fresh that everything seemd to have just happened yesterday.
The first ray of sunshine casts down on the Suriyakanda side of the Sinharaja rain forest. Photo by Pan Zurong from AP-Focus
Mr. Wei described the beautiful scenery, great location and fragrant black tea of the Suriyakanda Plantation to the reporter. He said that the Suriyakanda Plantation is located 880 meters above sea level against the place where the first ray of sunshine casts upon Suriyakanda, and there's agreeable climate, pure air, blue sky and clear creeks, etc. The cloud-wrapped peaks constitute good conditions for the produce of high-quality tea leaves which are totally natural, organic and fragrant with good reputation among the locals. It was because of this very factor that Zhongtian Dinghui decided to take over the plantation, echoing the whole blueprint of the oversea strategies of Zhongtian Construction Group Co., LTD while aiming to build an example of livelihood project for the "Maritime Silk Road".
A taste of British royal flavor at the alpine tea estate
There is a very ancient Aigburth Estate within Suriyakanda Plantation, which was founded by a British man called James Allen almost one century ago in 1925. This estate features the British architectural style with the main entrance facing east to welcome the first ray of sunshine and it has attracted many tourists who want to take a bite of the traditional food of British royal flavors, to explore the adjacent Sinharaja rain forest, to wander in hundreds of acres of tea farms and to experience the process of plucking and processing tea leaves.
Sunrise at the Suriyakanda side of the Sinharaja rain forest. Photo by Pan Zurong from AP-Focus
Nowadays, the majority of the tourists are high-end customers from the West, and there are quite a few from China as well. Every morning, the guests could taste the fragrant Ceylon alpine tea under the grape vines in front of the Estate Hotel, take the red sunrise into their camera frames, tell their relatives and friends how the clouds shift above the mountains, sharing with them the amazing dream-like experiences. In addition, Mr. Wei also introduced to the reporter that in the future, they would invest in the establishment of tea-themed tourist resorts, tent-style villas and gem mine experience areas, and offering exclusive experience including Sinharaja agarwood explorations, meditation trips at century-old temples, walks at the end of the mini tea world and bicycle rides, in order to offer more high quality services to western and oriental tourists. And they can also provide a summer resort to the increasing number of Chinese workers from Hambantota Port, which is only two hours' drive away.
Building the image of Zhongtian Dinghui under the One Belt One Road Initiative
Mr. Wei had a lot to share in regards of how private enterprises (of China) practice the "One Belt One Road Initiative". He mentioned that all Sri Lankan friends are well aware of the fact that they finally embraced peace after the ending of the civil war in May, 2009, which lasted almost three decades and it had a lot to do with the support from China, which was much appreciated by Sri Lankan people. Today, the "One Belt One Road Initiative" promoted by both China and Sri Lanka would bring huge development opportunities to both countries.
Beautiful scenes of the Suriyakanda Plantation. Photo by Pan Zurong from AP-Focus
In recent years, some major Sino-Sri Lanka cooperation projects have been progressing rapidly like the Colombo Port City invested and constructed by the China Communications Construction Group, the Hambantota Port Project and the Extension of Southern Expressway Project facilitated by the loans from Exim Bank of China, and some small and medium sized projects concerning the livelihood of local people have been implemented as well such as the Atana Water Treatment and Purification Plant, which all provided strong support in connecting the hearts of the people from both ends of this "One Belt One Road Initiative".
Mr. Wei pointed out that the taking-over of Suriyakanda Plantation happened under the aforementioned background. The Suriyakanda Plantation had suffered from its operations for a long period which eventually came to an end, leaving hundreds of local tea farmers desperate and their children no access to schooling. While following the investment of Zhongtian Dinghui, the then weed-covered tea farms are now full of green tea trees, and the tea factory resumes the production of black tea, and hundreds of broken and leaky dormitories of the workers have been turned into sweet homes, and the century-old estate hotel is reopened, and tea farmers get regular wages they could depend on, thus the whole plantation is revitalized and their employment models and environment are reshaped. In local areas, the name Zhongtian Dinghui becomes well know and almost a code word of Chinese people.
Doing charity work has become a norm of Zhongtian Dinghui
Since its entry into Sri Lanka market, Zhongtian Dinghui has followed the principles of "offering comes before taking" and "offer more, take less" in its oversea practices and taken active part in charity works. Mr. Wei also mentioned that in May of 2017, Sri Lanka suffered severely from floods and landslides, after which Zhongtian Dinghui held major fund-raising events, donated and organized disaster-relief and medical trucks to help and rescue the affected people, earning great reputation and appreciation from the Sri Lanka government and its people.
Scenery of sunshine and clouds of the Sinharaja rain forest. Photo: Courtesy of Zhongtian Dinghui.
In July, 2017 and January, 2018, a group led by the Director of Zhongtian Dinghui, Mr. Ge Dezhong, visited the largest local Tamil school within the vicinity of the plantation, and donated money, electronic devices and stationary to the school, wining the praise and support of the faculty. This school belongs to the local government, compromising of a two-floor teaching building and a few other single-floor appurtenances, some four hundred students, most of which are children of the workers from the Suriyakanda Plantation. The school is located at the inner land of forests and the local government doesn't have enough funds to support it, so the school hasn't been attended to for years, and the teaching facilities are all broken with no decent electronic devices or stationary. The donation from Zhongtian Dinghui really offered a timely help in tackling such issues.
At the end of the interview, Mr. Wei Zhongfeng indicated that there's a tough issue that all Chinese enterprises have to face, which is to tell the story of China's reform and opening-up history, to do well in the livelihood-related projects in the target country, to befriend the local people, to let the government truly experience the growth and harmony brought to the local society by Chinese investment, to align with the implementation of the "One Belt One Road Initiative" so as to create social and economic benefits for local people and local government, etc. This is an issue that Zhongtian Dinghui has been thinking about and exploring about.
P.S. The translator corrected a few errors of the original article.
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