In the past five years, Cheng Chunsheng, a tea planter from Wangwan village in Tongbai county, Henan province, has paid for his two children to complete college courses, and bought a car for business purposes. At the same time, the 48-year-old entrepreneur has expanded his tea-cultivation area tenfold from the 0.33 hectares he owned in 2011.

The expansion of Cheng's business, and the subsequent rise in his standard of living, is the result of discount loans offered to planters by the local government, which also provides subsidies so tea farmers can purchase better-quality seeds and pave roads in the mountainous area.

"Our lives are so much better now," said Cheng, who earns about 50,000 yuan ($7,900) a year, and is head of a 230-member planters' cooperative.