Farmers from Taiwan's tea farms on Friday opened a tea farm in a mountainous county on the mainland, making it the largest base in the mainland for the production of famous Taiwan Gaoshan Oolong tea.

 

The farm, which covers 40,000 mu (2,667 hectares) of land, is located in the mountains of Fuyong County in Fujian Province, about 780 meters above sea level, near south China's Zhangping city.

 

According to Liao Shenhong, a Zhangping city official, a quarter of the farm is already cultivated and the farm will reach full production in the next three to five years.

 

Oolong tea, made of fresh tea leaves, is semi-fermented during a series of processing stages including withering and dry-frying. Oolong tea grown on Taiwan's Ali Mountain, named Taiwan Gaoshan Tea, is particularly famous.

 

Xie Dongping, head of the Taiwan Businessmen's Association in Zhangping, said he came to Yongfu to grow tea as early as 1996. His tea farm, which covers 1,200 mu of land, can produce 40,000 kilograms of tea leaves.

 

"The tea produced here is as good as the tea from Ali Mountain," Xie said, adding that the privileges granted by mainland authorities provide them with plenty of business opportunities.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2006)