May 31st
The Economic Daily published a full-page article on its investigative section, reporting on Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, Yunnan Province. The report highlights the development of Tea and tourism industries while preserving the ancient tea forest cultural landscape, promoting the integration of culture and tourism as well as tea and tourism.
As the world's first tea-themed cultural heritage site, Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan Province attracts visitors from all over the globe with its natural and cultural beauty. Over the years, the indigenous communities living on Jingmai Mountain have coexisted with tea, cultivating it for their livelihood, and creating a unique cultural landscape where forests and tea thrive together in harmony. In recent times, the region has developed both its tea and tourism industries while protecting the ancient tea forest cultural landscape, promoting the integration of culture and tourism as well as tea and tourism. What does this once hidden treasure rely on to reach the world? What changes have occurred since its successful nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site? And what path lies ahead for its future?
Photo of the ancient tea forest of Jingmai Mountain by Zhou Sairu
Through a single leaf, one can see an entire mountain. In the southwestern corner of China, amidst the towering mountains of Yunnan, Jingmai Mountain has stood quietly for millennia. Here, tea is born from the mountain, and the mountain thrives because of the tea, with lush green mountains and vast ancient tea forests complementing each other beautifully.
The recently concluded Spring Tea season was busier than ever on Jingmai Mountain. Last September, the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee adopted a resolution to include the “Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape of Jingmai Mountain, Pu'er” on the World Heritage List. As the world's first tea-themed cultural heritage site, this was the first spring tea season after its successful nomination, bringing more visitors and instilling greater confidence among the local ethnic communities, while also clarifying the path forward for its future development.
When Jingmai Mountain, permeated with the aroma of tea, opens its arms to the world, the profound charm of its thousand-year-old Tea culture begins to blossom. What draws Jingmai Mountain to the world? Where does its enduring appeal come from? What new changes have occurred in Jingmai Mountain since its nomination? How will it develop in the future? Recently, our reporters visited Jingmai Mountain in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, entering the tea forests, visiting ancient villages, and interacting with local households to explore Jingmai Mountain's appeal once again.
Forest and Tea Coexist; People and Land Harmonize
“From afar, it looks like a forest; up close, it's a tea forest.” After visiting Jingmai Mountain, many people's preconceived notions about tea forests and tea gardens are overturned. Entering the ancient tea forest of Dapingzhang in Jingmai Mountain, at first glance, it appears to be a forest, but upon closer inspection, it reveals itself as a tea forest. Jingmai Mountain maintains the traditional planting method of “forest tea,” differing from tea gardens in southern Jiang and other regions, where neat and low tea plants are not seen here.
Walking along the trail, on either side, from top to bottom, large and sturdy trees such as camphor and banyan trees stand tall, followed by ancient tea trees and shrubs, and then herbaceous plants below, forming a clear three-dimensional community structure and ecosystem, layer by layer. In such a tea forest, yellow cattle adorned with bells graze leisurely, tea farmers pick tea leaves, and visitors admire scenery that cannot be found elsewhere…
According to Associate Researcher Xiong Dengkui of the Lancang County Museum, “The ancestors of the Bulang people discovered wild tea trees during their migrations and settled in Jingmai Mountain. They built villages within the forest and cultivated tea trees around them, developing the ‘forest tea' planting technique of growing tea trees under tall trees utilizing the forest ecosystem. Together with other resident ethnic groups, including the Dai, they have continued to protect and develop this land for thousands of years, resulting in the ancient tea forest cultural landscape where forest and tea coexist and people and land harmonize.”
The cultural landscape of the ancient tea forest of Jingmai Mountain includes five large-scale and well-preserved ancient tea forests, nine traditional villages distributed among them, and three protective forests between the ancient tea forests. “This is the result of the wisdom of the resident ethnic groups of Jingmai Mountain, who recognized, respected, and utilized nature, coexisting in harmony with it for a long time. It is a model of sustainable development. The average altitude here is around 1,400 meters, with high mountains and dense forests, making the terrain, climate, and soil conditions very suitable for Pu'er tea growth,” said Xiong Dengkui.
Panorama of Jingmai Mountain by Tan Chun
“The well-preserved ancient tea forests of Jingmai Mountain reflect the ecological wisdom accumulated by the resident ethnic groups over long periods of production and life.” Qin Fang, Director of the Institute of Landscape and Heritage at the Peking University National Spatial Planning and Design Research Institute, believes that the ancient tea forests of Jingmai Mountain possess a unique spatial structure of “forest-ancient tea forest-village,” a tea forest ecosystem similar to natural forests, special tea ancestor beliefs, and the culture of the resident ethnic groups, which create a livable mountainous human settlement environment and promote the millennium-long inheritance of the ancient tea forests and the sustainable development of the tea mountain's social economy.
Jingmai Mountain features a landscape pattern of “mountain and forest together, forest grows tea, tea surrounds villages.” According to Deputy Director Zhou Tianhong of the Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Protection Administration Bureau, the resident ethnic groups of Jingmai Mountain used their wisdom to create a mountainous human settlement environment where tea grows in the forest, villages are nestled within the tea forest, and farming and other productive activities take place outside the tea forest, achieving a reasonable distribution and sustainable use of production, living, and ecological lands. It is an outstanding representative of a mountainous forest agricultural cultural landscape.
The charm of Jingmai Mountain cannot be separated from the nine distinctive ancient villages. Standing at a high point in Nuogang ancient village, the entire village surrounded by forest and tea forest comes into full view. Wooden stilt houses are tightly clustered around the village center, and the original appearance of Dai culture and the primitive ancient village is well preserved. On the other hand, Wengji ancient village preserves the original ecological culture of the Bulang people, with the village center, ancient trees, and traditional stilt houses intact. The Bulang village roofs feature a totem of one bud and two leaves, and every household dries or displays tea leaves… Tea is the main character in Jingmai Mountain. Walking through the villages of Jingmai Mountain, tea elements are everywhere, and the lives of the local people revolve around tea.
After its successful nomination last year, Jingmai Mountain, now known to the world, has gained higher visibility, attracting more people with its unique charm. “More and more people know about Jingmai Mountain, and more friends are coming to Jingmai Mountain. We also welcome more people to Jingmai Mountain, to integrate into our lives and experience its ecology and culture,” says San Wen, a villager from Wengji ancient village in Mangjing Village.
Professor Zhu Yanchun of the Central Academy of Fine Arts has visited Jingmai Mountain for the ninth time. “When I first came to Jingmai Mountain, just walking around in the tea garden was exciting, as if it were a place I had dreamed of before. Its unique folk customs and the reverence for nature deeply attract me,” he says.
At the beginning of this year, Chen Pengyu and Bai Wenwen, who live in Beijing, learned about Jingmai Mountain through media reports and did extensive research, becoming deeply interested. Before the May Day holiday, the couple decided to take a vacation in Jingmai Mountain, “not going anywhere else, staying in Jingmai Mountain for five days.”
“Jingmai Mountain did not disappoint us. The simple folk customs left a deep impression on us. In the ancient villages, every home has a tea room, and sitting down to chat and drink tea is very relaxing, making one feel refreshed. Jingmai Mountain is a real-life Shangri-La,” says Bai Wenwen