Journey of 12-year-old boy to tea master

A workshop of Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory is pictured in Chibi, Central China's Hubei province, on November 29, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Lingqing/chinadaily.com.cn]

In addition, Gan had learned "having credit is the baseline of making tea" from Xiong Changgeng and "finding answers by observing, thinking and practicing rather by simply asking" from Lei Yipu.

"Being a good person is the first step of making good tea," Gan said. "I have five apprentices now and the most important quality I care about them is moral quality. Next is loyalty to our factory."

Gan himself is a model of loyalty at the factory. Epitomizing the overall tea manufacturing skills, Gan now is a senior engineer and national first level technician. Several companies have offered him high salaries up to 300,000 yuan ($43,522) per year, but he has refused all of them.

"Just like my predecessors who had devoted their life to our factory, I have worked here for more than 40 years. My feelings for it would never change," Gan said.