Across China: Taiwan farmers turn over new leaf on mainland

Cherry blossom bedecks the paths that wind for miles through Hsieh Tung-ching's tea plantation, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every day in spring.

"Many places have cherry blossom, but only here do they blend into green tea trees," said Hsieh as the Taiwan native showed off his marriage of tourism and tea farming in Yongfu, Fujian Province.

The hilly town is home to tea plantations of more than 500 Taiwan farmers, who aim to tap the vast mainland market using the island's famously meticulous farming techniques. They are a fragrant example of the booming cross-Strait agricultural cooperation.

Yongfu's romance with tea began about 20 years ago when Taiwanese farmers discovered the place was very similar to the Ali Mountains, Taiwan's major tea-growing area, in everything from climate and soil to culture.

Their transplantation of oolong tea from Taiwan proved successful. A widely circulated tale is that even Taiwanese tea tycoon Lee Rie-Ho,founder of Chinese tea giant Tenfu, could not tell the Yongfu tea from the Taiwanese original.

Hsieh's success has attracted more investment from Taiwan. So far, 48 Taiwanese tea companies have invested in the town, planting 3,600 hectares of hills with tea and making Yongfu the largest production base of Taiwan oolong on the mainland.

"Actually, the world's top 10 Taiwan oolong tea producers are now all in Yongfu -- none in Taiwan," said Lee Chih-hung, whose company grows tea on 160 hectares of hills.

"Tea shows off Taiwan's intensive agriculture," Lee said. "We've been trying to marry our advanced agriculture and management with the mainland's land resources and vast market."

Some techniques employed by Lee and others are eye-openers for locals, like irrigation with soybean "milk" 10 times a year.

"Chinese see soybean milk as a healthy drink, and our tea trees also drink it," Lee said, explaining that the juice from fermented soybeans decontaminates the soil and improves the taste of the tea.

His tea plants get other delicacies such as sheep manure from the northern steppe and peanut powder from central China.

Pursuit of sustainable crops and long-term returns has paid off. Lee's tea has passed pesticide tests and been cleared for sale in the European Union, Japan, Taiwan and China's mainland.

Government subsidies designed to encourage Taiwanese farmers to move across the Strait have made him confident about expansion. He praised a policy under which Taiwanese farmers are offered loans with preferential interest rates.

"It cuts the interest rate to about 0.6 percent, far lower than Taiwan's 1.5 percent," said Lee. "No wonder it raised quite a stir in Taiwan."

Hsieh's cherry trees are an example of blossoming cooperation between Taiwanese farmers and local authorities in eco-tourism, a relatively new concept to the mainland but highly developed in Taiwan. The Fujian government has helped Hsieh plant about 100,000 cherry trees of 42 species since he introduced the flowering cherry into Yongfu in 2000. From February to April, they bloom red, pink and white consecutively.

"It's beautiful. Only when you come to see for yourself can you really know how beautiful it is," said Hsieh.

Taiwanese farmers now sees Yongfu as a second home.

Lin Yung came to the town in 1997 to work for Hsieh. Five years later, he started his own tea company. He married a local woman, and so did his Taiwan-born eldest son, who came to help with the business.

"I spend about 11 months in Yongfu each year. I see myself as a native," said Lin.

With oolong thought to have originated in Fujian before first being cultivated in Taiwan several centuries ago, the migration of these farmers seems appropriate. "In a sense, we have brought Taiwan oolong back home," said Lee. Endi