Tea and coffee industries thrive in Southwest China's Pu'er

A famer works in a tea garden in Pu'er, Nov 8, 2015. [Photo by Chen Fei for chinadaily.com.cn]

Pu'er, a border city in China's Southwestern Yunnan province, has made rapid strides in developing its coffee and tea production industries.

Pu'er is an oasis on the Tropic of Cancer, for which tea is the soul. There in Pu'er tea lies the profundity and calmness of this border city, while the lingering sweetness of Pu'er coffee gives it the poetic and romantic qualities for which it is noted.

The area tea plantations cover in Pu'er is about 2.17 million hectares and the city is also the coffee production zone with the biggest planting area and the greatest output in China.

According to Wei Xing, secretary of the Pu'er municipal Party committee, the city is now making efforts to build and promote regional brands.

"Pu'er will organize various events of tea and coffee cultures to introduce its characteristic brands to the world," Wei said.

"An effective way to promote Pu'er tea is to develop tourism which will attract more people to this place to taste and understand Pu'er tea," Wei said.

A worker packs Pu'er tea in a factory of Yunnan Chazu Tea Co. Ltd in Pu'er, Nov 8, 2015. [Photo by Liu Xiaozhuo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The local government has filed an application to UNESCO for nearly 8,000 hectares of ancient tea gardens on Jingmaishan Mountain in Lancang county which have cultivated the earliest tea culture more than 1,300 years ago to be a World Cultural Heritage Site.

Besides, Pu'er invests to build more convenient transportation networks including railway, aviation and highways to expand the market for its tea and coffee products.

Wei said that Pu'er's second airport is set to open in 2016. "Pu'er covers 45,000 square kilometers. The airport will effectively improve the transportation of tea and coffee products from remote areas," Wei said.

"As the popularity of e-commerce rises, Pu'er also focuses on setting up Internet platforms for our products," Wei added.