The brick dark teas are pictured at Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory in Chibi, Central China's Hubei province, on November 29, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Lingqing/chinadaily.com.cn]

"They prefer eating no meat for three days to drinking no tea for one day," Gan said as he acknowledged that he felt a sense of satisfaction when he realized that for shepherds eating beef and mutton as main dishes in border areas, the brick dark tea made by his factory, which can be the oil solution, is an absolute necessity to their diets.

"Chibi, the hometown of Chinese brick dark tea, was also once the source of Eurasian tea road. In the heyday of the late Qing Dynasty, there were more than 200 tea makers here. Merchants from Russia, Germany and Britain all gathered here to buy and transport tea to Europe via today's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The history made me aware that making brick tea is a responsibility for every generation to inherit," Gan said.