The unbalance of tourism development and comparative superiority of the tea industry brings new opportunities to the poor groups along Lijiang River Valley for improving their livelihoods. From the perspective of sustainable livelihoods, we analyze the problems in tea farmers' livelihoods, such as lack of fund, low capacity in price negotiation, and high cost of resisting various risks. Recommendations are put forward for tea farmers to improve their livelihoods through ways of enterprise cooperation, innovative marketing, brand cultivation, industrial integration and so on.