Northern Vietnam

Pu-erh TeaTime for a cup of Pu-erh tea in China?The Pu-erh Tea treesDating back to the Cenozoic period of about 65 million years ago, the Pu-erh tea trees are possibly the oldest tea trees in China and even the world.The Chinese Pu-erh tea trees are growing in the subtropical zones in the South China provinces. They are also found in northern Vietnam, Burma, Thailand and India. However, they grow best in the moist valleys between the elevations of 1200-1400m above sea level, primarily in the forest in the South Yunnan Province of China.The trees are an evergreen woody plant growing as trees in arbors or as bushes. The bushes are mostly cultivated but trees can grow up to 5 to 15 meters tall with a diameter of over 1 meter. The leaves measure 4 – 15cm. Because of tis leaf size they also called "big leave tea trees" in comparison with smaller leaved trees and bushes.The oldest tea tree (No.01) found in the wilderness in Yunnan is 2700yrs old, located in Qianjiazhai, Zhenyuan. It was discovered in 1991 and measures 25m tall and 1m in diameter. It was awarded the "oldest tea tree". The surrounding area is dominated by other…