ready to go!

I haven't posted for a while, I was busy with school and other stuff. But now, I am about to take a new trip to China. In the next ten weeks, I will work hard towards fullfilling several objectives:

-exploring new tea mountains:
In the past, I have focused mostly on Xishuangbanna, but the Lincang teas that I have tried make me want to discover this area further. It seems a more remote place than Banna, and I am very excited at the idea of looking for tea treasures in Yongde, Mengku, Fengqing and other places. The Pu-erh quest is far from over, there are still dozens, if not hundreds of small ancient tea gardens to be explored. I hope in the future, I can provide more teas from lesser known areas.

-undertaking agricultural projects in the tea mountains, I want to learn and experiment in the fields. Growing organic tea implies to know a lot about the local ecosystem and how to cope with it while getting a decent yield. I would like to test the impact of mulching (spreading a layer of hay on the ground) on tea yield and on the tea garden ecosystem. I will try different settings and monitor several parameters to see which solution fits best. Another objective is to understand why spiders can live in some of the tea gardens and not in others. It would be interesting to study their life cycle and their impact on pest reduction.

-improving my understanding of China, which includes learning more advanced mandarin, meeting new people, paying attention... China is a fast moving country, some things are ephemeral, but deserve to be seen. Each country is unique, but all of what we see is a depiction of the human being's capabilities, in China, one can find so many different people, "different" in their lifestyle, hopes, social conditions, culture... but still, they are all humans, and I want to understand this species more, China is of great help in this journey.

Finally, the most beautiful and obvious objective of this trip is to meet my friends and beloved ones again.  Meeting old friends brings a lot of happiness and is very enriching. I love to see how each of us take different paths, go through life, make choices and develop. If more Pu-erh tea gets in the game, then I will be delighted, it's always a pleasure to get to know a handful of leaves.

Today, I read a great piece of news: the Jingmai ancient tea gardens are on the candidate list to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you can read more details in this article.

I wish you all an excellent summer!

Can Yunnan drought justify the Pu-erh price increase?

original article: http://www.puercn.com/puerchanews/news/43477.html

云南干旱还会是2013年普洱茶涨价的一个因素吗？

Can Yunnan drought justify increased Pu-erh prices in 2013?

　2009年入秋以来，中国西南等部分地区降水较少，气温偏高，出现持续干旱。近期，旱情仍呈发展态势。
Since Autumn 2009, South Western China has seen a lack of precipitation and high temperatures, which created a drought. Nowadays, the situation is still worrying.

　　虽然旱情对云南省茶叶生产有较大影响，但茶叶消费弹性大，价格上涨对普通消费者影响不大。
Even though the drought has had a severe impact on tea production, despite irregular consumption, the price increase has not impacted the demand. 

　　据统计，云南省茶叶产量约占国内总产量的13%，其中春茶占省内茶叶产量的25%至30%。云南省农业厅预计，2010年省内春茶将因旱灾减产50%左右，其中普洱春茶减产约60%。受此影响，去年普洱茶收购价格涨幅已超过20%，最高的超过70%。
According to statistics, Yunnan tea represents 13% of the Chinese tea production, 25 to 30% if we only consider Spring tea. The Yunnan Agricultural Department estimates that, in 2010, the drought reduced production by 50% overall and by about 60% for Spring tea. As a consequence of the drought, the price of tea last year increased by 20% on average, and up to 70% in some villages.


　　由于国内普洱茶产量占茶叶总产量的比重不足4%，且目前库存充裕（东莞普洱茶藏量占普洱茶总量的2/3），干旱减产不会影响市场供应。
As a result, Pu-erh tea does not even account for 4% of the total Chinese production nowadays, yet, the Pu-erh stock remains large (two thirds of the Pu-erh tea is stored in Dongguan, near Guangzhou), therefore, the drought should not have an influence on the supply.

　　在全国消费能力提高、物价都涨的情况下：2013年普洱茶春茶价格涨是一定的，不然茶农怎么脱贫，茶商怎么赚钱？但小编我认为云南干旱了这么几年，今年应该不会还用干旱做为普洱茶涨价的因素吧？*
In China, the consumption should continue to increase and the prices do the same: Pu-erh tea will surely be more expensive in 2013. Still, will the farmers get out of poverty? Will the tea shops make money?  I think the Yunnan drought has been around for years, can it still be used as an argument to justify higher prices?