Chinese drive to create vast vineyards spark concern
Planners' dreams of rivalling overseas wine industries could be soured by environmental damage and poor products, critics warn
Shenzhen businessman Peng Weijian has an insatiable curiosity when it comes to wine. For more than a decade he has travelled the globe tasting the products of grapes from many regions.
He also has no desire to taste the product of Tibetan farmers who have been asked by the government to plant and grow foreign grapes.
"No offence to pandas or Tibetans, but grapes planted in the wrong place by the wrong people can produce only the wrong type of wine with the wrong taste," he said.
His expression of aversion comes as the provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi - homes to more than 1,600 wild giant pandas - have rolled up their collective sleeves to produce wine-yielding grapes.
In January, authorities in Shaanxi released a plan to build 18,000 hectares of vineyards at the foot of Qin Mountain.
