Organic Tea Village is Cancer-freeZhangshan Village may be even better known in Europe than in China: the village now accounts for 60 percent of the organic tea products on the European Union market.Zhangshan, a small village in Wuyuan County of East China's Jiangxi Province, is located in Dazhangshan Mountains 900 meters above sea level. Situated on the highest peak of Dazhangshan, Zhangshan is surrounded by trees and tea plantations, with a small river running through. With ideal climate and peculiar fertile soil, the village had for generations produced tribute tea for Chinese emperors in the past, said village head Wang Qiangtian. Wang Yangqin, a local medical worker who has served the villagers for more than 20 years, said definitely that according to the village's medical treatment records, there has never been any cancer patient among Zhangshan residents, and 80 percent of elderly people died of no illness. Average life expectancy is 73 years for all villagers and 78 for females, and there are now a dozen of octogenarians or even centenarians. He said less than 5 percent of villagers have left the village to work in other places in Jiangxi or other provinces in China. However, the village is not isolated. More and more outsiders including foreigners are visiting Zhangshan. Most visitors come to the village to enjoy the beautiful scenes and historical sites, for archeologists believe the village has some of the best-preserved ancient houses in the country. But among the foreigners some are tea traders from Europe who come for the village's leading product --Dazhangshan Mountain Tea. Over the past five years, the village has regained its glory as a famous tea producer. In 1996, the Dazhangshan Mountain Tea became the first among the country's hundreds of varieties of tea to win the "AA" mark for organic food, awarded by the China Organic Food Development Center. Wuyuan County is one of China's first 50 counties designated for developing ecology-friendly agriculture. The county has closed down all the paper-making mills, and helped most of local farmers to shift from firewood to biogas or using fuel-efficient stoves for cooking. Chen Shupeng, an academician with the China Academy of Sciences, and a group of scientists recently made an inspection tour of Jiangxi, and they concluded that the environments of many localities in the province are similar to that of Zhangshan Village. They believe Jiangxi has the potential to establish China's first ecology-friendly regional economy. |
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