The foreign press corps take a group photo at the Yanzike Ecological Tea Garden in Wuyi Mountain, Nanping. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

After feeling the pulse of Xiamen, a developed international city, the foreign press corps headed towards Nanping in northwestern Fujian on Nov 18, to learn about the city's development, as well as experience the city's distinctive tea culture and tea art.

Ecological tea garden

Yanzike Ecological Tea Garden in Wuyi Mountain, Nanping. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Nanping is a perfect place for tea planting, for it is endowed with a sound ecological environment and abundant natural resources. Its forest coverage rate is 78.89 percent and its major river water quality ranks at the top in the country. Nanping has also boasted the best air quality in Fujian province for six consecutive years.

Above all, it is home to Wuyi Mountain, the starting point of the historic 10,000-mile Tea Road which spans from Fujian province to Russia and first sprang up at the beginning of the 18th century when Europeans developed a taste for Chinese tea. Wuyi Mountain is also the place where black tea and oolong tea originated.

A foreign journalist takes a photo of the tea garden. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The foreign press corps visited Yanzike Ecological Tea Garden in Wuyi Mountain where rock tea, a kind of oolong tea, is widely planted, to take a closer look at how the city has achieved integrated sustainable development of the environment and tea industry.

Many foreign journalists expressed their likes towards this green, ecological tea garden and said they were amazed that tea can grow so well without any chemical pesticides.