A native of Pingding county of Shanxi province, Zhao has lived in Xiamen for decades.

"When I was a child, we used newly collected forsythia leaves to make tea by ourselves. Forsythia tea helps relieve inflammation and fevers,"Zhao said. "Although many of the teas are ready-made products, they just taste the same as the old days,"Zhao said.

On display at the Xiamen fair were more than 200 herbal tea varieties from 17 companies in Shanxi, including those made from mulberry leaves, astragalus roots, chrysanthemum flowers and wolfberry fruits.

Zhu Jie, a business visitor from Shanghai, said it was the first time that he drank the authentic Shanxi herbal teas.

"I am a lover of traditional teas. But I was pleasantly surprised with the herbal teas, considering their unique tastes and fragrances," Zhu said.

Before the Xiamen fair, Shanxi's herbal tea products were also exhibited at the China International Fair for Trade in Services, held in Beijing from Sept 4-9.

To help improve recognition of Shanxi's herbal tea, governments and businesses in Shanxi have launched a series of branding campaigns since the beginning of this year.

During a promotional fair for local herbal teas in Taiyuan on March 20, local businesses founded the Shanxi Herbal Tea Industrial Alliance, which is responsible for the promotion of herbal tea products, drafting industrial standards and helping members register their trademarks while designing corporate identities.

One of the alliance's earliest actions was launching the "Shanxi Herbal Tea", a collective brand for local products with a geographical indication, on the same day of its inauguration.

This brand is expected to make Shanxi Herbal Tea a recognized name like Longjing Tea in Zhejiang province, Pu'erh Tea in Yunnan and Wuyi Rock Tea in Fujian, according to Ju Zhen, chief of the Shanxi Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

He said the herbal tea sector will become a new growth area in the province's rural development, alongside agricultural products with local geographical indications such as millet, matured vinegar, fragrant pear, walnut, sorghum, buckwheat and potato.

Guo Yanjie contributed to this story.