It is truly remarkable that Marco Polo wrote of travels through Fujǐan, but never mentioned tea in any form. Tea is a prominent feature of the life and landscapes in Fujǐan Province and has long been so with a local history of over 1,600 years. Indeed, in the 18th and 19th centuries, Fujǐan and particularly its port of Xiàmén (known then as Amoy) was one of China’s leading tea exporters; in the mid-1880’s the Province was exporting over 50,000 tonnes of tea annually (mostly to the UK and Australia). Nowadays, any traveller sauntering through Fujǐan would actually have to try very hard to avoid being struck by the prominence of tea in everyday life; the Province is both one of leading producers and consumers of tea in China. In villages, towns and cities Fujǐanese love drinking tea, and its production, trade and consumption figures highly in their economy, culture and daily life. Fujǐan is home of the finest oolong teas in mainland China and the leading variety of this is known as Tiěguānyīn. Other Fujǐan specialities include Lapsang Souchong tea (though we’ve had incredible trouble tracking down local sources of this black tea) and white tea. These and other premium teas are increasingly revered in both Fujǐan and elsewhere in China. Rapid growth in the country’s economy and personal prosperity has driven rapid increases in demand and hence rising prices for such premium quality teas.
Just a few hours drive from downtown Zhāngzhōu is mountainous Ānxī County – widely acknowledged as the leading region, or area with the best ‘terrior’, for production of high quality Tiěguānyīn. We have been fortunate to travel regularly through this beautiful County – both with colleagues for field work as part of my job and on occasional weekends to enjoy the UNESCO World Heritage listed Tǔlóu (Hakka Roundhouses or Earth Buildings) located in Ānxī. With each visit, I am repeatedly amazed at the visible impact of the surging ‘tea prosperity’ – prosperity which is shared widely in the rural community thanks to the ‘small producer’ nature of Fujǐan’s tea industry. Whilst black tea production in countries such as Sri Lanka and India is generally undertaken in large industrial scale, corporate ‘tea factories’ that produce several hundred or even thousands of tonnes per year, oolong tea production in Ānxī is overwhelmingly dominated by small growers and small processors. The average Ānxī ‘tea factory’ would fit in a standard Australian suburban garage, typically including just three small machines – a roller or tumbler; withering and fermenting racks and a drying oven. 
Over the past 10 years Ānxī has seen steadily increasing prices for the best fresh and processed tea leaves, improving the incomes of both growers and the small processors. Of course, many new tea fields have also been developed, with most rice fields in Ānxī having given way to tea – farmers there are now able to make far more profit from tea production than rice cultivation. Consequently, production has increased in recent years, but not enough to stem the steady increase in prices. Interestingly, it is widely rumoured that there is far more Ānxī Tiěguānyīn in the market than could possibly be produced in the County; the price premium creates a marked incentive for dilution, substitutions and even deliberate mislabelling. 
Throughout Ānxī County signs of newly found ‘tea prosperity’ are manyfold; roads have been upgraded, almost every third house seems to be either new or undergoing significant extension, new motorbikes are parked at most houses, new shops are springing up in villages and small towns and most of the local shops are brimming with new stock and many with ‘luxuries’ such as big TVs, upmarket mobile phones and brand name clothes. In the local markets the prosperity is also obvious – there are fantastic ranges of so much more than just the basic necessities, including fancy liquors, packaged snack foods, imported rice and fruits from distant lands. But perhaps one of the most significant markers of prosperity is that many local Ānxī tea growers no longer work their own fields. Nowadays, they often pay ‘outsiders’ to work their tea fields and pick the leaves. These ‘outsiders’ are typical migrant workers who come from faraway provinces, where employment opportunities are limited, to take advantage of the high demand and relatively good pay for unskilled or semi-skilled labour in Fujǐan. Fortunately, increasing prosperity has not detracted from the friendliness and hospitality of the local people. Often when walking along paths to access field sites high in the mountains of Ānxī we find ourselves invited into farmers homes to share their local tea and sometimes even a meal – an experience we always cherish dearly.
Roger Arnold
