Tourists find tea and more in Anhui

Traditional lifestyle

If a household doesn't want to hire helpers, the family will be rather busy. Although machines can be applied in the drying process, it is virtually impossible to replace human hands for picking the leaves.

Despite the high cost of labor, producing tea is still more profitable than growing a food staple, such as rice.

Tea's requirement for intense manual labor and its high profitability help to keep most of the villagers home instead of migrating to cities for work, as many rural residents across the country have done.

As a result, the local culture in tea-producing areas is often well-preserved, from traditional snacks to the craft of making bamboo baskets for use in tea picking.

Visitors who stay in the village will get a close look at how farmers work to earn a living.