Gan Duoping, the fourth generation inheritor of "Zhaoliqiao brick tea production techniques", holds a brick dark tea at Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory in Chibi, Central China's Hubei province, on November 29, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Lingqing/chinadaily.com.cn]

"All my masters have one thing in common: Their love for tea manufacturing," Gan said. "From them, I learned the tea culture and enhanced my theoretical and perceptual knowledge of tea. I no longer merely regard tea as a material thing but has realized that it has its own spirituality. I think it was the power of example that helped me find my passion of tea."

Moreover, trips to Inner Mongolia autonomous region deepened Gan's understandings on the importance of brick dark tea in local shepherds' daily lives.