Sixty-year-old tea plants near the top of Dajin Mountain in Southwest Fujian Province, China growing in rich, red volcanic soul. Planted in the early 1950's as part of a central government project, which was soon abandoned, they grew to over twelve feet tall. About five years ago the tea gardens were brought back into production as part of a five star hotel/resort/tea production project to be called The Cloud Nine Resort Hotel. When I visited in 2015 the tea plants had been pruned back to two to three feet and were producing tealeaves for the new, fully operational, state of the art tea production facility that was attached to still unfinished hotel. Anxi style rolled Oolongs, Wuyishan style strip Oolongs, as well as Fujian Hong Cha style Black Teas were all being made under the watchful eyes of a team of Tea Masters from Taiwan. The broad but short trunks of the sixty-year plants had healthy young branches with the years first spring tealeaves ready for picking. It needs to be noted that although the plants are now a mere two to three feet tall the root system and biomass underground is that of much older plants giving the leaves complex and mature qualities not found in younger plants. The hotel and resort may be open by now I'm not certain but the teas made atop Dajin Mountain are beautiful and world class. #thehappyteaman #dajin #dajinmountain #resort #teaplants #tea #springpicking #anxi #wuyishan #fujian #hongcha #biomass #teaproduction #firstflush #worldclass #beautiful #cloudnineresort #volcanic #volcanicsoil #richred