Spring Tea Festival begins with livestreaming sales boom

By Yan Wanqin

The 2026 Yichang Online Spring Tea Festival kicked off on March 26 in Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County, as the first tea gardens began seasonal sales. A livestream marketing campaign generated over 1 million yuan (US$144,670) in sales within the first six hours.
 

A total of 100 hosts, including influencers from leading MCN company Be Friends, launched joint livestream sessions at Qinggangling Tea Garden. By that afternoon, the first online event for Yichang spring tea had received more than 10,000 orders.

"Broadcasting from the tea gardens allows viewers to experience the high-altitude, mist-shrouded environment that defines Wufeng’s tea-growing region, which is a key factor in the tea's quality," said livestream host Liu Hongmei.

She added that outdoor sessions typically attract about four times as many viewers as indoor broadcasts, as platforms tend to divert more traffic to these live feeds.

Supply chain partnerships also gained momentum during the event. E-commerce giants Alibaba and JD signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Wufeng government. Sixteen tea buyers signed procurement deals with local tea enterprises, and eight companies obtained credit lines from financial institutions to support spring tea sales.

"The mountains and waters of Yichang produce exceptional tea. We plan to purchase most of Wufeng’s organic tea," said buyer Liu Yonghua, adding that purchases will be carried out in phases.

The integrated promotional campaign is expected to generate over 500 million views for Yichang’s tea brands online, according to the Yichang Municipal Bureau of Commerce. 

Yang Chunyan, Wang Fei also contributed to this story.