Pu'er Ancient Tea Plantation & Tea Culture becomes GIAHS pilot site

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Pu'er Ancient Tea Plantation & Tea Culture becomes GIAHS pilot site

(People's Daily Online) 15:38, November 03, 2013

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(Provided to People's Daily Online/Li Zhihua)

On Sept. 5, 2012, the awarding ceremony for GIAHS pilot site was jointly held by the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, in Beijing, during which the Ancient Pu'er Tea Plantation & Tea Culture of Yunnan Province was approved as a pilot site for the Globally Important Agriculture Heritage System (GIAHS). Li Xiaoping, Vice Secretary of Pu'er Municipal Party Committee, Mayor of Pu'er Municipal Government and Head of the Heritage Application Group, received the plaque for the "GIAHS Pilot Site".

The Ancient Pu'er Tea Plantation & Tea Culture System of Yunnan Province arises from Pu'er City that is reputed as "the Tea Source of the World, Tea City of China and Hometown of Pu'er Tea". In 2011, the total area of tea plantations throughout Pu'er reached 3.2 million mu, including 1.4 million mu of modern tea plantations, 1.8 million mu of wild ancient tea communities, 400,000 mu of tea forests and 180,000 mu of cultivated transitional ancient tea plantations. These represented a total output value of 3.6 billion yuan, which ranked first in prefectures and cities under Yunnan Province.

Pu'er City not only embraces wild ancient tea trees of more than 2,700 years old located at Qianjiazhai, Zhenyuan County, several million mu of cultivated ancient tea plantation with a history of over 1,800 years in Jingmai Mountain, but also some wide-leaf magnolia fossils dating back to 35.40 million years ago. All these help Pu'er City grow to be a significant tea tree resource treasure of China and even of the world as well and make Pu'er known as the "Tea Source of the World".

The wild tea tree communities there are living fossils of the place of origin of tea, the genetic resource bank of tea and also important natural and historical cultural heritage of Pu'er City. In recent years, Pu'er City has proposed the "scientific Pu'er" program by making use of its resource endowments, developed instant Pu'er tea, Pu'er tea cream, instant Pu'er tea essence and other products under a series of brands such as "Deepure", "PaKa" and "Pu'er tea pistil" and thus become a "Tea City of China" worthy of its name.

According to the research of some historians, cultivated tea trees emerged in Pu'er as early as 1,800 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, Pu'er tea began to be sold to Tibet and other regions as a commodity, and when it came to the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was exported overseas in large quantities. Pu'er City is the start of the tea-horse ancient roads, and Pu'er tea is named after Pu'er City, which in turn has gained its name with Pu'er tea. As a result, there comes the name "Hometown of Pu'er Tea".

The "Ancient Pu'er Tea Plantation & Tea Culture System" was listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a "GIAHS Pilot Site", marking once again its value as an embodiment of Chinese civilization and a treasure of world agricultural culture and ushering into a new era for Pu'er City to develop the Pu'er tea industry and carry forward Pu'er tea culture from a global perspective.

Pu'er City will seize this historical opportunity and endeavor to make substantial progress in tea industrialization, standardization, branding and internationalization and create a new situation for the development of the tea industry.

（Editor：DuMingming、Chen Lidan）