Spring is the time for tea connoisseurs to gather in Pinglin (
Between the qing-ming and gu-yu periods on the Chinese agriculture calendar, abundant rain falls in the hills of Pinglin, which are decorated with blossoms of all kinds at this time of year.
To further facilitate "tea tourism" in Taipei County, where Pinglin is located, the county government established the Taiwan Museum of Tea several years ago, the first in this country and the largest of its kind in Asia.
Before knowing anything about the spring tea from Pinglin, one must learn something about the evolutionary history of Taiwan's tea growing industry.
According to archives of the tea museum, the Chinese people have a long history of drinking tea. Ever since Lu Yu (陸羽) wrote the first definitive book on the subject, the Chajing (茶經, Tea Classic) 1,200 years ago, tea has been an indispensable drink.
Current annual global tea production is more than 250 tonnes a year, 90 percent of which is fully fermented black tea, 8 percent non-fermented green tea and the remaining 2 percent semi-fermented tea, so-called Oolong tea.
The major locations of tea production are concentrated in Fujian and Guangdong provinces in China and in Taiwan, with Taiwan alone accounting for more than 50 percent of global production.
Taiwan, with its rich natural resources, has more than 20,000 hectares of tea plantations in both flatlands and high-altitude areas.
Each tea has its own distinctive aroma and taste.
The more prominent places of production and their representative tea types include baozhong tea (包種茶), its representative product is wenshan baozhong tea (文山包種茶) from Taipei County's Pinglin township, and Oolong tea (烏龍茶), represented by Pomfong or Eastern Beauty (東方美人茶), produced mostly in Hsinchu and Miaoli.
According to the tea museum, the first tea seedlings were brought by a Chinese tea farmer from Fujian province's Mount Wuyi (
Around 1860, after the corrupt and increasingly weakened Qing dynasty signed the Tianjin Treaty passively with European and American powers -- whose missionaries, navigators and traders found China an untapped new world of wealth and opportunities -- major Chinese ports, including the one in northern Taiwan, the Tamshui port, were forced to be opened to foreign venturers.
Pinglin township was chosen this year as the venue of the annual Taiwan Tea Festival, one of the 12 major folk festivals in Taiwan hosted jointly by local governments and the Tourism Bureau.
The 2003 Taiwan Tea Festival kicked off April 11 in Pinglin, and showcases not just the extravagance of Taiwanese tea culture, but also the tea culture from China, including a nostalgic tea dance derived from central China in the Ming dynasty.
At the festival, which will run until April 20, other flagship teas from other areas around Taiwan, known as Taiwan's 10 major tea species, are also on display and available for purchase. In addition to the Wenshan Paochong tea and Oolong tea, other major species also include Dongding Oolong (凍頂烏龍) tea from Nantou, the Sun Moon Lake black tea from central Taiwan, "Dewdrops" tea from Mount Ali in south-central Taiwan and Harbor tea from Tungkang in the southernmost county of Pingtung.
For those visitors to the tea festival who are not overly fond of tea, like children, the hosts have prepared a great variety of foods, snacks, deserts and sweets made from tea, ranging from tea-flavored boxed lunches, green tea cakes to tea eggs and tea-flavored candies.
Tea and tea products are not the only attractions for visitors in Pinglin. As a matter of fact, the small hilly township is an ancient town with rich deposits of cultural and scenic beauty.
Holiday-makers also go to Pinglin to fish, camp and go hiking because of its scenic rivers and ponds, hills and forests.
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