- 来源：farmers’ daily
- 编辑：姚雯祎
- 作者：chen maoying, zhu haiyang farmers’ daily
anji, a small county in northern zhejiang province, is the birthplace of the chinese green development concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, and it has always taken ecological civilization as its hallmark. recently, anji has presented the vision for building itself into a beautiful, green and international county of high quality, setting the tone for the next five years and beyond. internationalization has thus become the buzzword in this small county for some time.
there is no coincidence. the international elements of anji can be identified in a number of ways. anji is the first county in china to receive the un habitat award, as well as one of the first “best tourism villages” recognized by the unwto. one out of every two chairs exported from china is produced in anji. in 2020, anji game, which respects the nature of children, has been selected by the world economic forum as one of the educational models that should be promoted in the era of industry 4.0.
among those going-global elements is anji white tea (“anji bai cha” in chinese). after anji white tea had been included in the first batch of chinese and european geographical indications in 2021, another piece of good news came from rabat, morocco on november 29, 2022 beijing time that the chinese “traditional tea-making techniques and related customs”, including the techniques to make anji white tea, were successfully included in the unesco representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity, adding the total number of world intangible cultural heritages in china to 43.
the white tea garden in huangdu village, xilong town, anji county, zhejiang province.
so what kind of leaf is it? how is its legend crafted?
anji white tea is not “white”
“how come it’s not white?”
in his first trip to china, philippe gougler, host of france 3 program “land of dreams — the ancient tea horse road”, found himself confused.
since there is the word “white” in the name of anji white tea, many people in their initial acquaintance with such a tea share the same misunderstanding. in fact, anji white tea is not in “white”, it is called so because its leaves undergo a reversible whitening process every spring. at temperatures between 19°c and 23°c, the leaves turn white, with green veins, resembling the feathers of a phoenix. the leaves will re-green if the temperature exceeds the range. when processed into tea, anji white tea takes on the shape of an orchid and has an emerald green color, making itself a green tea variety.
in his da guan cha lun (“the treatise on tea”), the emperor huizong of song dynasty wrote: “white tea is of its own type, different from regular tea. its leaves are soft, thin and lustrous and easy to spread. it was occasionally born out of the places between the cliffs of mountainous forests. in producing white tea, it must be manufactured meticulously with local production methods. if properly processed and treated, the tea will look transparent, like a beautiful jade, unmatched by any other tea variety.”
in 1982, the mother tree of anji white tea was discovered at an altitude of over 1,000 meters on a mountain, which was a single specimen. in 2013, anji white tea was confirmed by tea experts from china international tea culture institute to be the white tea that had been lost in a thousand years, as described in the da guan cha lun, which became a sensation in the tea circle.
using cutting technology, local researchers have successfully bred this rare and endangered plant. anji now has more than 200,000 mu (around 13,320 hectares) of tea trees planted, producing an annual yield of 2,100 tons of tea worth 3.2 billion yuan, and generating additional per capita income of 11,000 yuan for 290,000 farmers. anji white tea contributes 60% of the county’s total agricultural output, and it also accelerates the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the county.
foreign tea traders tasted anji white tea.
pan yuanqing is the inheritor to the intangible cultural heritage of the manual frying techniques of anji white tea. as he explained to journalists, the process of picking rare white tea leaves is particularly delicate because fresh leaves must be handpicked, either “one-tip one-leaf” or “one-tip two-leaf”, from different tea gardens, at different times and for different duration of processing. in addition, frying requires skillful application of the techniques of “grab, shake, pitch, hold, flatten, push, buckle, throw, grind, and press”, so that “the tea will look transparent, like a beautiful jade, unmatched by any other tea variety.”
clearly, there is a reason for this unique tea. according to ye haizhen, president of anji white tea research association, anji is encircled by tianmu mountain and longwang mountain, which forms a dustpan-shaped basin. as air rises along the “mouth of the dustpan”, it meets cold air, causing frost condensation. this results in a short frost-free season and a long winter with low temperatures. generally, the absolute low temperatures in the mountains are below 10℃, the relative humidity of the air is as high as 84%, and there is less direct blue and violet light. all these allow plants to produce and accumulate nitrogen compounds such as amino acids, which result in the unique re-whitening process and the genetic characteristics of plant metabolism.
a leaf for common prosperity
in winter, the picturesque and vast ecological tea garden of huangdu village of xilong town is still shining with lustrous greenness.
on april 9, 2003, the then party secretary of the cpc zhejiang provincial committee xi jinping inspected huangdu village in anji county. the village was then well-known for getting rich by growing white tea, and xi jinping praised that “a leaf makes an industry and enriches local people” during this trip. today, the village not only sells tea, but also sells its beautiful scenery. in 2021, the village received more than 300,000 person-times of tourists, truly transformed its lucid waters and lush mountains into mountains of gold and silver.
“when drinking the water of a well, one should never forget those who dug it; after becoming rich, people have never forgotten the kindness and love of the party.” in april 2018, twenty party members wrote a letter to general secretary xi jinping, reported on how they became richer by growing white tea, expressed their willingness to donate 15 million tea seedlings to poverty-stricken areas to help them shake off poverty and they promised to help the recipient areas with the planting and sales. xi jinping replied to this letter and gave important instruction.
from then on, the party members and villagers of huangdu kept the important instruction in mind and meticulously engaged in land selection and the planting, processing and sales of tea of “white leaf no. 1” project with great enthusiasm. they successively sent 579 person-times in 98 batches to guzhang county of hunan province, qingchuan county of sichuan province and pu’an county, yanhe county and leishan county of guizhou province. in just a few years, huangdu village has donated a total of 22.4 million tea seedlings to the three provinces and five counties, created a total planting area of 6,217 mu (around 414 hectares) and increased the local per capita income by over 2,000 yuan.
lifting poor households out of poverty and enriching them is not the ending. rather, the story of “a leaf for common prosperity” is still ongoing. in the next three years, anji county will continue to donate a total of no less than 30 million “white leaf no. 1” tea seedlings, expanding the donation area to 10,000 mu (around 666 hectares), so that “the seedlings for prosperity” can benefit more people.
the moment when the news about the inclusion of chinese “traditional tea-making techniques and related customs” in the unesco representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity, anji was ignited with joy and excitement. representatives of tea farmers from the three provinces and five counties receiving anji white tea seedlings also joined the celebrations. on december 9, together with anji tea farmers, they took part in a series of tea art activities to celebrate this remarkable achievement in xilong town. on december 10, fifty thousand farmers cooked tea in the green square of the county and held the “tea drinking day for all” event.
the world is filled with the scent of anji white tea
the louvre in paris, france, has a romantic encounter with anji white tea. since november 2010, anji white tea has been available to all vip visitors to the louvre. this story can be dated back to october 2010 when zhejiang province organized its enterprises with high-quality agricultural products to attend the world food expo in paris, and a tea company in anji was invited to participate. taking this opportunity, the company established contact with the louvre, and then it sent a sample of anji white tea to the contact person. after tasting the sample tea, a high-level person of the louvre was deeply impressed by and fell in love with its unrivaled fragrance and immediately decided to introduce anji white tea into the louvre.
foreign envoys tasted anji white tea in lujia village, anji county, zhejiang province.
since then, anji white tea has embarked on its exporting journey. in 2018, eight tea farmers from anji county visited poland’s third largest city of poznan to participate in the international trade fair for food. in order to fully demonstrate the superior quality of anji white tea, tea farmers played videos of white tea gardens and the process of harvesting and tea making during the event and served the anji white tea to tea merchants from all over the world. at the end of the exhibition, tea merchants from 27 countries competed to sign sales contracts, creating a new record of batch export of the tea and its sales volume increased year after year.
jia wei, head of yumo tea farm, proudly said that the eu is one of the regions with the highest safety standards for tea in the world. the annual batch export of anji white tea to the eu is enough to demonstrate its superb quality. wan chuangen, the boss of anji maiqingye white tea co., ltd., believes that the company is not only selling tea, but also making friends in the tea circle around the world, and the key is to spread chinese tea culture and let the world fall in love with chinese tea.
as one of the representative projects of zhejiang province, anji white tea’s tea making technique has been officially included in the unesco representative list, which heralds an unprecedented opportunity according to liu bin, director of anji county agriculture and rural affairs bureau. he says that the county will adhere to high-quality and highly-efficient development, adhere to common prosperity, further integrate and promote tea culture, tea industry and tea technology as a whole, and tell the wonderful stories of anji white tea to the world through the high-quality transformation, competitiveness improvement and sustainable development of the industry by adopting enabling technology, including digital technology, and relying on cultural resources as well as high-caliber talent.
