Can ancient Puer tea bring new prosperity to a poor and isolated area of Yunnan Province?
　　
　　PUER’S REBIRTH: A baby plays in a tealeaf-picking basket while his parents pick Puer leaves in the remote village of Kunlu. The growth of the tea business in the county has yet to trickle down financially to the village
　　For thousands of years, caravans followed an arduous route through the mountains of southwest China in the name of trade. This route, known as the “ancient tea-horse trail” (chamagudao), zigzagged for more than 4,000 km through southwest China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
　　Developed during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), one of China’s most prosperous and powerful empires in history, trade continued for 1,200 years, with goods such as tea and salt exchanged for horses, furs and other goods from Tibet.
　　This ancient trail is also known as the Southern Silk Road, and Puer, located in Simao in Yunnan Province, was the start of it all. Puer’s location as a natural trade bridge connecting Yunnan to Southeast Asia long made it a distribution hub for the exchange of tea and culture. The path from Puer leads north to the capital city of Kunming, west to Tibet, India and Nepal, and south to Myanmar, Viet Nam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
　　Even though the trade route faded with the construction of modern highways and railway lines, the growing and selling of Puer tea, a distinct and prized variety, has continued. However, the tea business has stagnated due to poor infrastructure in the area and a lack of business savvy on the part of growers and sellers. That’s changing. Local officials and tea growers are hoping that new development efforts will bring Puer back to its glory days as both a center of tea production and distribution.
　　
　　Time-worn trade
　　
　　TEA SHOWCASE: Puer tea, on display at a tea research institute in Puer County, is usually sold in round cakes that are left exposed to air in order to ferment
　　A bumpy 30 km jeep ride from Puer County in the southern range of the Wuliang Mountains, at an altitude of 2,271 meters, is a small village called Kunlu. Wild Puer tea trees grow there, high in the mountains, and locals say they are 500 to 1,000 years old. The trees are tended to by 13 households, inhabitants of the mountaintop for generations.
　　There are about 400 of these old tea trees, grafted from wild ones and cultivated by the villagers, growing in an area covering 6.75 square km. Puer County is a natural museum of tea tree varieties, with a wide assortment growing in the area, distinguishable by leaf shape.
　　Locals say that tea made from leaves of the wild trees is undrinkable as it causes a stomachache, while tea from grafted tress is milder and good for the health. The tea has a distinct reddish color and a smoky or earthy taste.
　　Trade of Puer tea, an area specialty, had its heyday during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when tens of thousands of tea farmers turned out as much as 80,000 piculs (or 4.8 million kg; a “picul” is an ancient Chinese weight unit) of the tea each year. In 1897, the Qing emperor set up a customs office to collect taxes on tea exports to European countries such as Britain and France.
　　
　　The popularity of Puer tea helped the ancient transportation route become a pivotal corridor for border trade in China. Stories of the caravans and adventurers of ancient times are now inseparable from tea culture.
　　“The origin of Puer tea worldwide and trade in Puer can be traced back to ancient times, when tea farmers and caravans flocked to Puer to conduct trade,” said Du Yixue, Governor of Puer County, as he led a group of visiting reporters on a short hike along a narrow section of the old tea trail.
　　“While the trade center faded with the development of modern means of transportation, it is being revived by efforts to attract more visitors. People are emphasizing the origin of Puer tea culture. Tea traders invest here in processing factories and teahouses, believing the history [of Puer tea] will provide them with better access to the modern tea business.”
　　
　　Developing the brand
　　
　　FROZEN IN TIME: Sculptures in a park in downtown Simao, in southwestern Yunnan Province, commemorate the caravans that once traveled the ancient tea-horse trail. Local officials hope to boost business by promoting the area’s tea history
　　According to Du, in a drive to boost the tea business in Puer, local officials are strategically resurrecting the origins of the tea by encouraging the rediscovery of tea culture and the folk customs of local ethnic minority groups, such as the Hani.
　　“Most importantly, we see the reputation of the tea itself as an intangible asset. With its unique method of production and health benefits, Puer has established a brand image. When it comes to awareness of tea culture, Puer tea is leading the industry,” he said.
　　Historical records show that the ancient town of Puer was once shaped like an open book, with a spectacular view at its peak looking down onto unfolding fields of tea. “We are changing the town’s layout to recapture the old days,” Du said.
　　Tea ceremonies and ethnic minority customs involving tea are being promoted to visitors as a key part of the Puer tea brand, as is the ancient caravan culture along the trading route. “We offer tea consumers not just the high quality Puer tea, but also allow them to experience the daily life of the minority people,” he added.
　　Always after new trends, tea lovers have turned their attention from green tea and Oolong tea to Puer. Favored by collectors, Puer undergoes a slow, natural fermentation. The Chinese ascribe all sorts of health benefits to the tea, and say that it can help with weight loss.
　　Another plus is that, as in the old days, Puer is well situated to offer easy access to export markets. “Every year we make promotions all over the country to help our enterprises develop a brand image, and are [increasingly] functioning like a corporate entity. We are planning expansion in overseas markets,” said Xu Yong, an official from the Puer County information office.
　　Rather than merely fulfilling production quotas, tea producers are conducting proper market research and responding to consumer demands for product improvement. “Even the product packaging is considered vital for success of the brand image,” Xu added.
　　
　　Currently, Puer tea is well received in big Chinese cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, and the market is expanding to Japan and South Korea, and even stretching to specialty tea dealers in the United States and Europe. According to Xu, the price of the tea has at least doubled since the late 1990s.
　　
　　Investment potential
　　
　　TEA FROM TREES: A woman in the remote village of Kunlu, in Yunnan Province, picks leaves from Puer tea trees said to be between 500 and 1,000 years old
　　Yunnan, a large province, is also one of the poorest in China and dependent mostly on the tobacco and tourism industries. Puer County is particularly poor, with credit debts of some 10 million yuan. Hani and Yi minority autonomous areas located in the county are among the poorest areas in the province and rely on state support.
　　Development of the Puer tea fields is hindered by remoteness and a lack of infrastructure, something that has plagued the local people for centuries. Du, the Puer County Governor, said he attaches great importance to developing better connections between the area and the outside world.
　　The problem is most obvious in the village of Kunlu. As an isolated location and poor road conditions make it difficult for people to travel in and out of the village, the tea can only sold through a government monopoly, often at high prices in cities like Beijing, while the families remain poor.
　　Kunlu villagers know only vaguely that their tea would sell for hundreds of yuan in major cities; their remote location, as well as the difficult-to-understand dialect they speak, renders them helpless and they say they are required to depend on sales agents.
　　A 50-year-old villager surnamed Lu said that his family is so poor, the livestock they raise can only be culled once a year, during celebrations for China’s traditional Spring Festival.
　　Each family is contracted to pick tea leaves from eight or nine trees, and sell the leaves at a price of about 20 yuan per kg. Prices for the pressed cakes of Puer tea soar to five times that amount in Kunming, to 100 yuan for a cake weighing about 400g, and jump to nearly 200 yuan in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with tea aficionados paying several thousand yuan for the most highly prized long fermented cakes of Puer tea.
　　An emerging problem is that the coffee industry is drawing farmers away from tea production. Fang Shunsheng, a man in his 70s from the village of Nandaohe near Puer County, told reporters that the price of coffee has inched up to 25 yuan per kg, higher than that of tea and making it a more lucrative crop.
　　
　　Future plans
　　
　　Despite the current difficult situation, Puer residents are inspired by the huge tea industry potential and are enthusiastic about self-development. Restrained by limited capital resources, brainpower and modern techniques, the county government is determined to open to the outside world by inviting businesses to establish operations in the area.
　　Since 2004, investors from Thailand, Myanmar and Taiwan have been involved in the Puer tea business. Local officials are keen on the involvement of more tea traders, to optimize the use of resources and the labor force through more efficient production and bigger business.
　　
　　“Preferential policies are given in terms of both land use and taxation,” said Xu from the Puer County information office. “Business invitation is now a big part of our job. [With more businesses involved], Puer tea will be well promoted in the marketplace.
　　“What’s more, the expansion of the industrial chain has earned tea farmers an impressive income. We are thinking about deepening and increasing business invitations, and are intensively building supports such as simplified certification and payment procedures for traders,” Xu added.
　　Du, Governor of Puer County, said that solid production ability is the base for advancing the Puer tea business in the area.
　　“We are aiming for a processing capability of around 8,000 tons by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), double that of 2005,” he said. “With sales turnover and all costs included, we will push the annual industry value to a new height of 500 million yuan.”
　　Output of Puer tea is brisk at the Yingpanshan Organic Tea Garden, part of privately owned Yunnan Longsheng Green Industry (Group) Co. Ltd., which has assets of some 200 million yuan.
　　With 16,000 farmers contracted, output capacity has surpassed 3,000 tons, fueled by growing market demand, generating more than 100 million yuan with a double-digit increase in profits year-on-year, said Li Dingbiao, Deputy Manager of Yingpanshan. “That is not a big thing. We are looking more into product quality and technique improvements,” he added.
　　Gradually losing a price advantage compared with Sri Lanka, where labor is even cheaper than in China, the company doesn’t want too much export business. Instead, the strategy involves changing itself into an organic tea park producing environmentally friendly Puer tea.
　　“[In our program], the first three years will lay a solid foundation, while within five years, we will see some results, and in eight years, a tea industrial chain will be built up. As we are lacking a proper labor force, we will subsidize young people for training courses on tea growing,” boasted a Puer County official.
　　
　　Like a Fine Wine
　　
　　Puer tea, also called “puerh,” is a fermented tea named after the county in southwestern Yunnan Province in which it is grown. The tea is sold in two forms: raw and cooked.
　　The leaves of old Puer tea trees are picked, dried and then usually processed into hard, round cakes, which are left to mature. The raw tea cakes are stored for years before taking on the tea’s signature rich, earthy taste due to oxidation.
　　Puer tea improves with age and is said to reach full maturity after around 30 years. As with fine wine, collectors of the tea are willing to pay high prices for the tea of certain “vintages.”
　　Cooked Puer tea is fermented under controlled conditions and is ready to drink right away.

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