China tea town hopes name change will brew success

By Emma Graham-Harrison

PU'ER, China (Reuters Life!) - A small notice at bus stations in southern China advises travelers they can no longer book tickets to the town of Shimao, because it no longer exists.

Instead, they will find friends, relatives and business contacts in Pu'er, the name of one of China's most famous and expensive teas - and now capital of the region it grows in.

"Everyone has heard of Pu'er, no one has heard of Shimao," says small-time tea grower Zhao Qiang, summing up the reason for the abrupt change, which took effect from April 8.

With tourism a rapidly growing business in China, officials are competing fiercely to draw in yuan-bearing visitors from richer areas. And in a country devoted to tea, the name of a famous brew is a big advantage for a provincial town.

Although coffee is increasingly becoming popular, tea remains the brew of choice: China consumes 700,000 tonnes a year.

Nestled in the tropical hills of southern Yunnan province, the streets of Shimao, or Pu'er, are scattered with tea shops and tea houses, posters for famous tea brands -- testament to the leaves' earning power.

Traditionally sold in brittle "biscuits" wrapped in paper and bamboo leaves, the best Pu'er commands prices that rise above $1,000 a kilo.

Unusually for China, where most teas command their highest prices when relatively fresh, the best Pu'er teas are those that have been aged, like fine wines, sometimes for more than a decade.

"I have a sack upstairs that in a year or two should be worth 20,000 yuan ($2,600) a kilo," said tea shop owner Wang Shifang, scooping up small lumps of one of her best teas, shaped like irregular beads, some with a rusty yellow patina of age.

The prized leaves -- some from wild bushes -- are sometimes molded into blocks embossed with poems or lucky mottos, pictures of dragons or even a map of the ancient tea trade routes.

Drinkers tease the leaves out with a special knife and a pair of wooden tweezers for an informal ceremony of up to 20 brewings. Good tea is supposed to change with each round and the best taste slightly sweet after several soakings.

Prices are soaring as a result of demand from dieters abroad and the newly wealthy in China's cities. This is good news for tea farmers, but bad news for Pu'er's modestly paid residents who can no longer afford their namesake drink.

"We haven't drunk it at home for a couple of years now, it's too expensive" sighed taxi driver Lao Dao, sipping a more humble blend from a canister in his cab.

($1=7.676 Yuan)