Sunrise casts a golden hue on the mist enveloping Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan province. [Photo provided by Shao Hongyan for China Daily]

On Jingmai Mountain in Southwest China's Yunnan province, tea is far more than a beverage. For 64-year-old Nankang of the Blang ethnic group, tea is medicine. He kneads tea leaves, packs them into bamboo tubes, and buries them. Months later, the leaves ferment into a sour seasoning.

For generations, Blang families have used this mixture to boost immunity and maintain health.

For Xiangong, a 42-year-old woman of the Dai ethnic group, tea is food. Fresh leaves are fried with eggs or meat, adding a distinctive aroma and flavor to everyday dishes.

For residents of different ethnic groups on Jingmai Mountain, tea is also an invitation. Families hosting weddings wrap a pinch of tea and two candles in banana leaves as a "tea invitation".

Located in Pu'er, Jingmai Mountain lies near a town that once thrived on the tea trade and later gave Pu'er tea its name. One of the six major tea categories in China, Pu'er tea traces its roots to this region.

Ancient tea forests stretch across the mountains, dotted with nine villages. For centuries, the Blang, Dai, Hani, and Va ethnic groups have planted, harvested and celebrated tea.

Today, nearly 6,000 residents live here, and almost every household depends on tea for its livelihood.

In 2023, the "Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The designation brought Jingmai Mountain new attention. In early 2026, The New York Times included Yunnan in its annual "52 Places to Go" list. The publication highlighted how the ancient Tea Horse Road, which once carried tea from Yunnan across Asia, is finding renewed life among modern travelers. Yunnan was the only destination in China to appear on the list.

This is the third Spring Festival after the UNESCO designation, coinciding with the Year of the Horse. Villages fill with visitors. People arrive from afar, eager to see one of the world's oldest tea gardens and remnants of the Tea Horse Road.

Visitors crowd Xiangong's courtyard. In 2025, she renovated her ancestral home, expanding guest rooms from 15 to 36, making it the largest homestay on Jingmai Mountain. January and February were fully booked weeks in advance.

As of 2025, Jingmai Mountain had 207 homestays, employing more than 1,100 people. Xiangong also established a tea cooperative in 2010, which grew from 27 to 229 households, with over 600 hectares of standardized tea gardens producing 200 metric tons of raw tea annually.

She says these changes are reshaping the lives of younger residents. New opportunities in homestays, online tea sales, and cultural tours are encouraging many locals to return home.

She adds that the influx of tourists has also made life busier for tea farmers.

Xiangong harvests in the ancient tea forest. [Photo/China Daily]

Beyond harvesting and processing tea, families now host guests and introduce them to their traditions. Signs offering free tea tasting hang outside most homes.

"Now, we are not only selling tea," Xiangong says. "We are selling the 24 hours of this mountain, the four seasons."

Xiangong says visitors are drawn here because Jingmai Mountain offers something increasingly rare. Tea teaches "restraint" — respecting nature and time, taking no more than necessary.

Nankang says farmers follow strict rules: harvesting only in spring and autumn, picking no more than 70 percent of new leaves, and avoiding summer and winter harvests.

Pesticides are forbidden. In the ancient forest, tall trees shade tea bushes, shrubs fill the mid-layer, and herbs and fallen leaves carpet the ground. Spiders prey on pests, leaves decompose into fertilizer, and species naturally regulate each other, he adds.

In comparison, modern agriculture often plants a single crop over vast areas, creating a simplified ecosystem. A pest or disease adapts to that crop, causing catastrophic damage.

Data from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences show that 943 seed plant species and 187 terrestrial vertebrates have been recorded in the forest. These species coexist with tea trees, forming a stable ecosystem and natural barrier.

Chen Yaohua, an associate professor at Peking University's College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, says "understory cultivation" of old tea trees reflects generations of ecological wisdom. This knowledge, passed down by locals, constitutes a "living testament" to traditional, eco-friendly tea cultivation techniques developed by ancient Chinese people.

In about a month, Jingmai Mountain will welcome its spring tea harvest.

Chen says that with a heritage spanning over 1,000 years, it still offers insights for modern life. "How can humans and nature, as well as people themselves, live in harmony? On Jingmai Mountain, you will find the answer," he says.

Yang Qiyuan and Cao Yuqian contributed to this story.

Xiangong's courtyard is a popular homestay on Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan province. [Photo/China Daily]

Xiangong's courtyard is a popular homestay on Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan province. [Photo/China Daily]

The mountain sees an influx of visitors. [Photo/China Daily]