Jiang Xuexia, a woman in her 30s from an underdeveloped eastern village, has managed to create a popular black tea brand with annual online sales of more than 6 million yuan ($0.88 million) after resigning from a Top 500 company.

With high expectations from her fellow villagers because she got the highest score on the 2004 college entrance exam in her hometown of Qimen county, East China's Anhui province, Jiang decided to re-energize the local black tea brand after graduation. "Qimen black tea was once a very popular brand, and lost its luster in the 1990s. Many local farmers shifted to green tea," Jiang said.

Jiang and her sisters signed a uniform tea garden management contract with local farmers to standardize management and ensure quality. During the harvest season from March to June, local farmers sell their tea leaves to Jiang's tea factory at a higher than market price, as long as they meet the standards set by Jiang. "We received as much as 100,000 yuan of tea leaves daily on average during the harvest season, and paid the farmers every three days," Jiang said. More than 60 local households have been lifted out of poverty since Jiang started her tea business.