Spring tea harvest underway in Ning'er, SW China's Yunnan

Local people perform a folk dance at a tea garden during a tea harvest festival in Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County, Pu'er city, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 29, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Hu Zunhui)

Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu'er city, southwest China's Yunnan Province held a tea harvest festival on March 29, announcing the start of picking spring tea at over 300,000 mu (20,000 hectares) of tea gardens in the county.

The festival aims to protect the making technique of gongcha, or Pu'er "tribute tea," enrich the cultural connotation of Pu'er tea, promote the county's profound history and culture of Pu'er tea, and facilitate the upgrading and transformation of tea companies through the integration of tourism and culture with tea to help boost the tea farmers' incomes and enhance the quality and efficiency of the tea industry.

In recent years, Ning'er has leveraged its local ecological advantages to vigorously develop eco-friendly tea gardens, leading to the rapid development of the tea sector.

The county has over 333,000 mu of tea gardens, including 204,800 mu of modern eco-friendly tea gardens. In 2023, the county achieved a raw tea output of 13,100 tonnes, with a total output value of 4.06 billion yuan ($561 million).