Villagers gather to sing, antiphonal style.	A hamlet encircled by terraced fields.	Tea fields in the Ailao Mountain.

Located in Yunnan Province’s Simao City, Zhenyuan Yi-Hani-Lahu Autonomous County is populated by 22 different ethnic groups, including the Yi, Hani and Lagu minorities. Its terrain of 4,137 kilometers undulates from 774 to 3,165.9 meters above sea level, and is perennially green. Thanks to a balmy climate with an annual average temperature of 18.5 degrees Celsius, some 66.7 percent of Zhenyuan’s territory is blanketed in dense forest. Among the forest are scattered hundreds of hectares of wild tea trees. At 2,700 years old, the oldest of these lays claim to the title of the King of Tea Trees on Earth.

The tea king was discovered in the early 1980s by a local cowherd. The news of the existence of a giant tea tree in the Ailao Mountain soon spread around the region. Word eventually reached scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Yunnan Agricultural University, who wasted no time in going there to examine it. After a field study they concluded in 1996 that in the Ailao Mountain’s 240-odd square kilometers of primitive forests exist 280 hectares of plant communities, with the tea tree the dominant species. The land is the largest of its kind worldwide, and believed to be one of the oldest tea growing areas on earth.

The tea king merits its title in terms of both age and size. It stands 25.6 meters tall and has a diameter of 2.82 meters. Its fleshy, glossy leaves produce a strong and lasting flavor when made into a beverage. In 2001 the Shanghai Guinness Book of World Records confirmed it as the largest ancient tea plant in the world, and scholars and tourists from every corner of the globe have come to the county to see it.

The old tea king has become a business card of Zhenyuan, but it is not its only attraction. The county offers breathtaking views of steep peaks and valleys veiled in cloud and mist, the ruins of the millennium-old Tea-Horse Trail, incredibly carved terrace fields, and above all, the fascinating Kucong culture.

From Primeval to Modern Life

The Kucong people, an offshoot of the Lagu ethnic minority, live in the depths of the Ailao Mountain. They are descended from the ancient Qiang tribe, who moved into Yunnan from eastern Qinghai and southern Gansu provinces to escape wars and persecution. They found peace deep in the mountains of Zhenyuan, and it was there they made their home. Kucongs were long known to the civilized world as barbarians. In the 1960s they still eked out a living hunting, gathering fruits and herbs, and growing buckwheat and maize using the slash-and-burn method.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government has appropriated increasing amounts of relief funding to poverty-stricken ethnic minorities, including the Kucong. Thus the Kucong achieved in a few decades what took the rest of society millennia: the transmisson from the Stone Age to modern times. However, owing to the region’s hilly terrain, thin soil, frequent natural disasters and low level of education, their productivity and living conditions lagged far behind the rest of the country.

In 2005 a Xinhua report titled “Kucongs of Zhenyuan, Yunnnan Province: Still in Stark Destitution” sent shockwaves around the country, and reached the ears of the state leaders in Beijing. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao remarked that, “The supportive policy for ethnic minorities of small populations should be carried through. And concrete measures should be taken to lift the Kucong people out of misery at the soonest possible time.” He repeated his call in December 2005 and February 2006, and demanded more aid for the Kucong people.

The State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Bao Steel Group and the Yunnan Provincial Government responded by sending several delegations to Zhenyuan. Based on their research, a comprehensive package of aid policies and projects was worked out. Zhenyuan deems this a turning point in its history. It mustered up all local strength and explored every one of its resources to strive for the development of the economy, culture, public health and the environment.

Various measures were tailored to suit the local natural and financial conditions, and many locals are seeing a great improvement in their living standard. Nine relocation projects have been launched, aimed at moving 6,000 Kucongs from inhospitable regions to other places in the county. Besides, 54 villages with relatively good living and farming conditions, whose residents exceed 9,000 people, received assistance to start or improve infrastructures and services that are vital to economic development and public welfare, such as water supply, agricultural production, roads, power supply, schools and medical care.

The first two years of the “2006-2010 Poverty Relief Plan for the Kucong People in the Central Ailao Mountain in Zhenyuan County” are dedicated to making sure Kucong people have enough food and clothing, while the remaining three will focus on further improving their living standard. To achieve this goal, the county is cultivating specialized industries including walnut, tea, bamboo and silk production and livestock breeding. The plan has achieved encouraging results so far.

Outside Capital Injects Vitality

Most areas of Zhenyuan in fact boast excellent conditions for aforestation and agriculture. The county’s mountain areas also boast a wealth of mineral reserves including gold, silver, copper, iron, salt and coal. In the past, however, locals neither fully nor wisely exploited these gifts of nature. Even today, half of the county’s 200,000 people remain in poverty, including 30,000 in extreme poverty.

This grave situation means daunting challenges lie ahead for Zheng Yingsong, the recently appointed party secretary of Zhenyuan. Zheng has convinced local cadres and residents that economic growth is largely hinged on the opening up policy and the scale of outside investment.

With his backing, Zhenyuan County has stepped up its efforts to improve the local investment environment and introduced a wide range of investor incentives. In 2006, 14 enterprises invested a total of RMB 91.36 million in the mining, flower, fruit and tea sectors. They helped Zhenyuan generate GDP of RMB 726 million that year, an 11.5 percent increase over 2005.

At the start of 2007 the county released a new list of 11 key projects open to outside investment, including the development of salt chemical products, the development of the Qianjiazhai Scenic Area, the construction of an international tea exhibition center and a grade-two power station on the Zegan River.

Zheng Yingsong says, “Our strategy is to balance the economic development of the rural and urban areas, and build a robust economy based on specialized industries and tourism. Ultimately we will eliminate poverty through urbanization and industrialization.”

                                                                                                                                 From China Today