Tea practitioners say:

Tea, is it good tea? You have to try it to know.

Original title: 'Magnies' Joy in the Laowu Mountain Tea Gardens

Laowu Mountain Ancient Tea Mountain is located southwest of Anban Town in Zhenyuan County. It is a particularly captivating range among the many branches of the Wuliang Mountains, primarily distributed within the three village committees of Luojia, Wenli, and Nabu under Anban Town, as well as parts of Zhentai Town. The tea mountain has a population of over 4000 people, mainly comprising Yi, Hani, and Lahu ethnic groups. The altitude ranges from 1700 to 2200 meters, with an average annual temperature of 14°C and annual rainfall between 1390–1502mm. According to a 2006 survey, the Laowu Mountain Ancient Tea Mountain has 8616 acres of wild tea communities, 2870 acres of tea gardens over a hundred years old, over 380 acres of old tree tea over sixty years old, and 3500 acres of ecological tea gardens. Since 2007, over 6000 new acres have been planted. Currently, the total harvestable tea area on Laowu Mountain Ancient Tea Mountain reaches 12,800 acres.

Research indicates that local artificial tea cultivation began in the Tang Dynasty, dating back over a thousand years. On Laowu Mountain grow three very ancient tea trees, currently the tallest, largest, and oldest cultivated ancient tea trees discovered within Zhenyuan County. Among them, one ancient tea tree located by the field in Heshangsi Village has a root diameter of 1.23 meters. About one meter above ground, it has six primary branches, each with a diameter exceeding 30 cm, and a tree height of over 9 meters. Its trunk diameter is 8.9 meters, tree height 9.5 meters, and crown spread 7.3×8.7 meters. It is the largest among the local ancient tea trees, revered as the 'Tea God Tree'. The people on the tea mountain still hold regular ceremonies to pay homage to it, showing their respect.

Laowu Mountain stretches continuously, shrouded in clouds and mist year-round with ample rainfall, exhibiting the typical climatic特征 of 'four seasons on one mountain, different weather within ten li'. As tea is a spiritual product that changes according to geography and climate, Laowu Mountain is an ideal place for tea growth and has earned its status as one of the 26 famous ancient tea mountains in Pu'er City. The ancient tea trees here are primarily old trees over a hundred years old with trunk diameters of 10-30 cm, mostly distributed at the edges of fields and corners of farmland. Some are planted in patches, while others are scattered individually. The characteristic of the patch-planted tea gardens is reasonable planting density, regular spacing between rows and plants, relatively uniform tree sizes, and most tea gardens are intercropped with corn and other crops, forming a harmonious, orderly, natural, and healthy ecosystem. Due to its得天独厚 conditions for tea production, the tea produced here has always been highly sought after by merchants and has been favored by Pu'er tea collectors for many years.

Ms. Su from Huiyi Tea Manor personally went up the mountain and stayed for a few days in April 2012, purchasing a batch of tea. She said: 'In terms of the appearance of the strips, the tea here is slightly inferior to that from Jingmai and Bangwei, mainly due to different processing techniques. Jingmai and Bangwei produce loose-strip tea, while here the processing technique results in tight-strip tea. However, its aroma is unique, with a wild, mountain charm. After brewing, the leaves and buds are plump and robust, the soup color is yellow-green and orange-bright. Upon tasting, the tea flavor is full and mellow, the throat feel is warm, smooth, and clear, extremely comforting and pleasant. The tea fragrance is sometimes hidden, sometimes apparent, as if present yet absent, quite intriguing. Furthermore, being new tea, some bitterness and astringency are inevitable, but the bitterness of this tea seems concentrated only on one point on the tip of the tongue, and no matter how you drink it, it seems to firmly occupy that spot, apparent but not sinking, sticky but not stagnant. Carefully savoring it, the taste somewhat resembles the experience of eating olives before. Additionally, this tea has a light astringent base. After the tea enters the mouth, it promotes saliva production quickly, feeling moist but not wet, with a swift returning sweetness and a long-lasting aftertaste. It truly is a top-grade product among teas.'

Today, tea production has become a pillar industry for Laowu Mountain, an important reliance and prospect for the local people's lives and livelihoods. Who would have thought that this was originally a high, cold, impoverished mountainous area with very inconvenient transportation? Going to Anban Town street required departing before 5 a.m. and returning home between 8-9 p.m., a place outsiders called 'where even ghosts fret'.

Elder Brother Li, nearly 60 years old, whose ancestors have lived in the mountains for generations, is also a literate and capable person locally. He told me: 'Don't just see everyone praising how good our place is now, calling it a good place. In the past, many people couldn't even grow enough grain to eat. It was very backward and very poor. Local girls were unwilling to marry here, and some wives even abandoned their children and ran away to marry outside. My two younger sisters, one married to Anhui, the other to Sichuan. But now, young people who go to study or work outside, after gaining knowledge and broadening their horizons, mostly choose to return to their hometown to develop. Many have even brought back wives from outside. Several who married outside have also returned in recent years to grow tea, plant walnuts, process tea, etc., saying the development environment here is good.'

One day, Elder Brother Li was picking tea in his family's tea garden when he saw several magnies flying about, chirping noisily – the magnies that had disappeared for years had flown back. He spontaneously composed a couplet: the first line 'In the past, girls in Laowu Mountain village could not be retained', the second line 'Today, magnies in Laowu Mountain tea gardens fly joyfully', with the horizontal scroll reading 'Past and Present are Incomparable'.