Audiences watch the performance at the opening ceremony of the third tung blossom festival in Tian’e county on March 28. [Photo by Lan Caiyun/Xinhua]

Tian’e county’s tung blossom festival gained the award of “Most innovative Chinese ethnic festival” in 2014. According to village head Wei Yufeng, this year’s festival was guided by the government but sponsored by local people. The next step of the village is to integrate tung blossom with cultural values of love, family, filial piety and life, in order to promote its brand awareness of tung tree village and achieve prosperity by developing cultural tourism industry.

Sanbao village is located in a cold highland area with an average elevation of over 900 meters. More than 15,000 people, of the Zhuang, Buyi, Yao and Miao ethnic groups, live in the 247 square kilometer village. The The Lanyi Zhuang, a branch of the Zhuang ethnic group, gains the name because that the group members think that blue is the most beautiful color and they always wear blue homespun clothes.

The main products of Sanbao village are tung trees, flue-cured tobacco, China fir, chestnut and oil-tea camellias. Tung trees are the pillar of the village economy, and with a total planted area of 110,000 mu (7,333 hectares), Sanbao is one of the most prolific tung producing villages in the country.

Tian’e county has a long history in tung production. With a total cultivated area of 441,700 mu, the county can produce 92,000 tons of high quality tung seeds annually with a total value of 220 million yuan ($35.19 million). Tian’e has two tung processing companies. The Tianquan Tung Processing Plant in Tian’e county is Guangxi’s largest tung processing company. It is able to process 20,000 tons of tung seeds and can produce over 7,000 tons of tung oil. Every year, its production value can reach 80 million yuan, with more than 10 million profits.

Since 2012, Tian’e county has successfully held three tung blossom festivals. The local government will go on inheriting and innovating in order to promote the festival and develop local tourism industry.

Edited by Andrew Ancheta