There's a storm in a teacup brewing dark and strong in Yunnan . 'Go in there and ask them for pu'er tea, and see what they give you,' suggested Zou Jiaju , the secretary of the Yunnan Tea Association. We finally found a tea shop that was open for business at a vast emporium in the provincial capital, Kunming. 'It won't be proper pu'er. They'll serve you green leaves - green tea - and tell you it's pu'er. But it's not. It's counterfeit,' he said. Pu'er tea, a strong, aromatic brew from Yunnan, has long been prized for its medicinal qualities and was the preferred brew of emperors from various dynasties. More recently, the famed leaf has been given the accolade of official 'Olympic tea'. But shops such as this one and plantations across the province are not revelling in its reviving qualities. Last year, the pu'er leaf was costing more than gold after the supply was struck by an earthquake that devastated some prime plantations. Counterfieters cashed in, and this has irked the deeply passionate tea- master Zou. Inside the tea shop, the vendor served up his tea with due ceremony. Mr Zou was correct. Even a novice could tell the tea served was not pu'er, which has a distinctive bitter, earthy taste. This stuff was light on the palate. It was easy to drink, but pu'er it was not. It was green tea. Mr Zou sat down at the tea table, took one sip and contrived a wince - and began once more a debate that he has been waging for 20 years with other tea connoisseurs over what constitutes real pu'er. Mr Zou's long and often repeated account - he says he is on a life-long mission to educate the growing number of tea ignoramuses - is one of cloaks and daggers, allegations of cartels, corruption in high offices, counterfeiting, rising prices, demand and boom, and now oversupply and bust. The vendor admitted that most of the teas in his shop were green leaves being passed off to unsuspecting customers as the real stuff. 'What's happened is that tea lovers got so used to drinking green tea, thinking it was pu'er tea, they now cannot stomach the real stuff from Yunnan,' said Mr Zou. 'They find it too strong. They cannot sleep because they drink too much of it. We have a real fight to bring respect back to Yunnan's pu'er and to make sure the growers are paid accordingly.' The tea war simmers underneath an otherwise verdant, relaxed, serene and enchanting province - a 394,000 sq km area of China that attracts all manner of gushing phrases from travel writers. How best to describe the remote southwestern corner of China - a land of sacred peaks, rivers, lush jungle and fertile plains - a piece of earth that, unlike much of eastern China, has not been covered with several layers of concrete? Official classification of Yunnan's pleasing climate claims that the province - stuffed to overflowing with flora and fauna and home to 50 per cent of China's ethnic minorities - benefits from a 'subtropical highland monsoon'. The southern Silk Road wound its way though the province on its way to Burma and India, and in the 1960s, railway engineers unearthed Yuanmou Man, a Homo erectus fossil believed to the oldest hominid fossil yet discovered in China. Emperors and Mongols mingle in the history pages that portray Yunnan's rich history - one littered with power struggles, foreign invaders and exiled fallen officials. This restless past reveals a province once known for its rebellious character. Today, two-thirds of the 42 million calling the province home are from 26 minority groups, including Tibetans, Naxi, Bei, Dai and Achang. The unique climate ensures that most of Yunnan's stunning, ever-changing, breathtaking landscape thrives year-around. From 76.4 metres above sea level in Haekou in the south to 6,740 metres on the Tibetan Plateau, all is awash in clean, fresh air. To the north, towards Shangri-la, the winters are long and bitter, while along the borders with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, the air perspires with humidity. Mostly, though, Yunnan offers ideal territory for the province's chief industries of tobacco and flower growing, tourism and, of course, tea. Kunming, the capital of 1.1 million where the Olympic torch arrives today, is a far cry from the smogtropolises expanding apace elsewhere in provinces to the east and north. Poets have written reams trying to capture the city's allure. Its nickname, Spring City, sums it up nicely. And though there are construction sites and new highways, meandering through the streets where many old buildings remain ensures that the visitor mixes with Tibetans and Naxi, and then can easily turn into a courtyard and listen, alongside pensioners, to Peking Opera. Yunnan has an old, warm charm carved by antiquity and unique topography. Remarkably, given the mainland's zeal for development, this has not been tinkered with to the point of the despair felt in the east. This is despite the discovery of an abundance of minerals that have a potential value in trillions of yuan. Yunnan is one of the mainland's major production bases of copper, lead, zinc, tin and aluminium. This helped the province lift nominal gross domestic product last year to 472.17 billion yuan (HK$533.3 billion), an annual growth rate of 12.3 per cent. Its per capita GDP was 11,496 yuan. However, its main industries do not have the same devastating impact on the environment as in many other provinces. It has protected national parks and the popularity of eco-tourism is growing. Yunnan is also home to a variety of animal species, including the Southeast Asian gaur, a giant forest-dwelling ox, the tiger, and the Asian elephant, as well as 18,000 species of plants, and will remain at the vanguard of China's fledgling drive towards eco-friendliness. That is not to say Yunnan does not need investment and modernisation. Poverty blights many communities, though the tapping of natural resources is helping a poverty-alleviation plan has lifted about 5 million above the poverty line since 1994. However, as with brewing a good pot of genuine pu'er tea, such development needs careful nurturing. Yunnan factfile Demographics Population: 45.14m GDP up 12.3 per cent year on year to: 472.18b yuan Economy Even though the manufacturing sector accounts for the lion's share of its economy, Yunnan has been tapping its abundant natural resources and archaeological sites to build up its service sector, which is centred on the hospitality trade. Of the total 279.8 billion yuan in fixed-asset investment last year, 172.92 billion yuan went into the tertiary or service industry, a 27.5 per cent increase over 2006. Another 99.74 billion yuan went to the manufacturing sector and only 7.21 billion yuan was pumped into agriculture Indicators (2007) CPI: up 5.9 per cent Per capita disposable income: Urban: 11,496 yuan, up 13.7 per cent; Rural: 2,634 yuan, up 16 per cent Exports: US$4.74b, up 39.6 per cent; Imports: US$4.04b, up 42.4 per cent Foreign direct investment: Actual: US$395m, up 30.5 per cent; Contracted: US$966m, up 21.1 per cent Source: National Bureau of Statistics
