First spring tea picking in Yichang city, Hubei Province

First spring tea picking in Yichang city, Hubei Province

Farmers are busy harvesting spring tea leaves in Yichang city, central China’s Hubei Province.

Due to its unique valley climate, Yichang city has become one new major area producing tea in central China after the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. There are about 100 thousand tea growers in Yichang, and the total area of Yichang’s tea plantations is over 330 acres.

The first fresh green tea of the year is considered the most valuable of its kind, for it gives perennial pleasure to tea lovers. Therefore tea growers take special care of the first harvests in tea plantations, and every twig of a tea tree is hand-picked