Anxi’s terraced tea plantations.	Tea pickers in Anxi, Fujian Province.	Harvesting season.

THERE is a saying among Chinese tea lovers: “If you drink tea, you should not miss Chinese kungfu tea; if you drink kungfu tea, you should not miss Tie Guanyin; if you drink Tie Guanyin, go to Anxi.”

Tie Guanyin, known as the “king of teas,” only grows in mountains wreathed by clouds. Anxi County is located in the southeastern province of Fujian, where the mountainous topography and mild subtropical monsoon climate characterized by high rainfall make the area ideal for cultivating this unique variety. Tie Guanyin is a semi-fermented oolong tea, different from fully fermented black and unfermented green varieties.

The tea’s name literally means “Iron Goddess of Mercy,” a title bestowed by Emperor Qianlong, who reigned from 1736 to 1795. The tea came into the public eye in the mid-18th century, when a scholar named Wang painstakingly cultivated tea bushes, and eventually offered his leaves to the emperor. Qianlong praised the leaves’ color as being dark as iron, with a shape as elegant as the Goddess of Mercy. Hence the tea earned the moniker Tie Guanyin.

Tea is an essential part of daily life in Anxi. It is offered to guests or as a gift to friends, and businessmen often make deals in teahouses. In traditional weddings, the bride offers tea to her parents-in-law to show respect. In the ceremony for worshiping ancestors, three cups of tea are placed before tombs. Believers and laypeople alike also put cups of tea before statues of Buddha.

Anxi has set up a special team promoting the particular way of making and drinking Tie Guanyin, which is both a ceremony and an art. Their performances help tea lovers in China and overseas to know more about Tie Guanyin and the region where it is made. The official spokesperson for promoting the tea is Susan Antony, an official in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She got to know Anxi through its famous tea and fell in love with the county after visiting. Westerners, including Americans, are used to having coffee or black tea, says Mark A. Cohen, a staff member with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, but Anxi’s Tie Guanyin is changing the drinking habits of many young people.

An Economy Taking Shape

As well as being integral to Anxi’s culture, tea is also the bedrock of the county’s economy. The area has 26,667 hectares of tea plantations, representing an annual output of 42,000 tons. The plantations supply over 500 processing factories and many trade companies. The industry had a production value of RMB 4.5 billion in 2005, providing jobs for at least 800,000 people – around 80 percent of the area’s population. More than 7,000 tons of tea are exported each year to more than 40 countries in America, Europe, and Tie Guanyin’s traditional market of Southeast Asia.

The local wholesale market, Tea Capital of China, has seen a steadily rising trade volume since it opened in 2000. After years of expansion, the market now has 1,500 shops and two trading lobbies holding over 3,000 stalls. The market also provides related services like quality measuring, e-business and technology consultations for tenants. Other supporting institutions include a tea culture research center, a museum, and a hotel. The market’s annual turnover surpasses RMB 1 billion. The rapidly growing tea industry has given great impetus to other local industries, especially packaging and printing, machine building, logistics and tourism.

But the rising popularity of Tie Guanyin is not all about economic benefits. As well as being a good refreshment, Anxi public relations official Liao Jieming said the drink is also good for healing anger and easing nervous tension – something badly needed in today’s hectic, high-pressure society.