When the application for World Cultural Heritage was successful in September 2023, people were asking, “Why Jingmai Mountain?” and the answer was that it deserved it. Now, as a year has passed since the success, the “Jingmai Mountain effect” is increasingly prominent; whether for locals or visitors, looking at it from the perspective of World Cultural Heritage, the question being contemplated is, “What is Jingmai Mountain?”
Standing at this heritage site at the milestone of its first anniversary, we possess a clear sense of both time and space. To answer “What is Jingmai Mountain” through our perception of time and space, perhaps the better question is: “What kind of time and space is Jingmai Mountain?” In Jingmai Mountain, the dimensions of time you can perceive are more than one, and the forms of space you can experience are more than one.
The glory of Jingmai Mountain’s tea era is grand, its fragrance spreads across the universe to the ends of the earth. How many times does the moon of a thousand autumns appear in ordinary life, as it unveils today’s eternal clouds? Coming to Jingmai Mountain, there are moons and clouds; these are not only the moons and clouds of the present generation but also those of the ancients—they were seen this year, just as they were seen over the past millennia. In Jingmai Mountain, the dimension of time is not just one year, but a millennium.
Before the ancestors of the Blang and Dai ethnic groups arrived, Jingmai Mountain was a dense primitive forest containing wild tea trees. From before the 10th century AD to the present, based on the timing of the formation of village and tea forest landscapes and the evolution of the human-tea relationship, the evolution of the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest cultural landscape can be divided into historical stages: primitive forest landscape, the initial period of the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest landscape, the development period, the prosperity period, and the stable period. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest has received effective protection from various levels of the Party and government, and the surrounding forests have gradually recovered. With the scale and landscape of the ancient tea forest well-maintained, the overall cultural landscape of Jingmai Mountain has entered a period of steady continuity.
The Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest cultural landscape is a typical example of the tradition of under-forest tea cultivation practiced by the ethnic groups residing here since ancient times. The social governance system maintained by these resident ethnic groups, the unique worship of Tea Ancestors, the local tea culture centered on “Harmony,” the community-based ecological protection rules, and customs of mutual respect and care have achieved a high spiritual connection between humans and tea, and between humans and nature, ensuring that this tradition has continued for millennia and remains vibrant. Chen Yaohua, Director of the World Heritage Research Center at Peking University, proposed that the ancient tea forest of Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan, is an enduring ancient tea forest with a long history of tea cultivation and ancient tea trees, serving as a living “Chinese Tea” history book.
“Our ancient tea gardens were left by our ancestors over 1,000 years ago; the ancient tea gardens of 1,000 years from now are the ecological tea gardens we plant today. We protect the ancient tea forests just as we protect our eyes, respecting, veneramenting, and inheriting these tea trees as part of our own lives.” said Su Guowen, a cultural communicator of Jingmai Mountain.
Over this past year, through protection, excavation, and inheritance, a dialogue between a single year and a millennium has been realized.
Adhering strictly to the principles of “no change to the original state of cultural relics” and “minimum intervention,” we have conducted specialized surveys of traditional dwellings, prepared and implemented execution plans, selected professional construction teams, and formed quality and safety supervision teams, effectively protecting the spatial texture and overall appearance of traditional villages and forming a more complete cultural heritage protection system.
By deeply excavating the cultural connotations of the Jingmai Mountain ancient tea forest, we have established a three-level heritage interpretation and exhibition system (heritage site, administrative village, and natural village), added over 200 protection signs and explanatory plaques, and comprehensively showcased the Outstanding Universal Value of the heritage. We have also formed a team of 52 part-time and full-time guides, gradually creating a positive atmosphere ranging from expert-led tours to everyone participating in interpretation.
Strengthening the protection and inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage, we have trained 21 Jingmai Mountain ICH inheritors, and the Jingmai Mountain traditional tea-making technique workshop (part of the Lancang ancient tea heritage) has been recognized as one of the first provincial-level ICH workshops. Encouraging the development of the cultural and creative industries, we have launched over 40 local-themed creative products and published excellent literary works such as the book Jingmai Mountain: A Tour of the Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape, the poem Imagining Jingmai Mountain, the prose Jingmai Dazhai, and the painting The Fragrance of Jingmai Tea.
Thus, the people who come to Jingmai Mountain because of its title as a World Cultural Heritage site will experience a unique journey through time; here, they can touch primitive history and culture and feel the enduring spirit of their ancestors. They come toward the mountains, and what comes toward them is a passage through a thousand years of time.
Upon entering Jingmai Mountain, the first thing one senses is the ecology. Here, there are green waters, lush mountains, blue skies, and white clouds; the air is fresh and easy to breathe. This is a uniquely blessed ecological space. Walking into Jingmai Mountain is walking into nature and merging with nature, allowing one to enjoy wonderful moments of coexistence with the natural world every day.
Over the past year, we have deeply practiced Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological civilization, firmly established the development concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” and continuously promoted ancient techniques such as the multi-layered community structure created by ancestors to provide an ideal growing environment for tea trees, the use of falling leaves to provide natural nutrients, and reliance on biodiversity for pest control. We have strictly protected the natural shade forests of the ancient tea forest, restored the protective forest belts around the tea gardens, classified and approved the distribution and number of tea trees over 100 years old, conducted GPS point monitoring, set up fences and warning signs, and fully implemented biological and physical pest control to ensure the maximum protection of the ancient tea forest’s original ecosystem. On October 27, 2023, Jingmai Mountain was named by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment as one of the seventh batch of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” practice and innovation bases.
It is not just an ecological space, but also a living space; life and ecology empower each other. Here, one can experience an ecological and green lifestyle, as well as a colorful, harmonious, happy, open, and inclusive way of life.
This area is home to long-term residents of the Han, Dai, Hani, Wa, and Blang ethnic groups, making it a typical multi-ethnic community. Taking the successful World Heritage application as an opportunity, the people have gained a deeper understanding and firmer identification with their own culture, while also developing stronger cultural confidence. They always remember the teachings of their ancestors—to respect nature, protect the ecology, and guard the tea mountains—and through music, dance, clothing, food, and festivals, they confidently and gracefully showcase their culture, presenting a cultural landscape of harmony between humans and nature, humans and people, and humans and the land, which is a vivid practice in strengthening the sense of community for the Chinese nation.
The festival activities here, such as the “Shankang Tea Ancestor Festival,” “Opening Festival,” “Closing Festival,” “Hundred-Family Banquet,” and “Hundred-Herb Banquet,” have been well-received and are gradually becoming local cultural calling cards for Jingmai Mountain. The Dai people’s bamboo tube tea, the Blang people’s green bamboo tea, and the Hani people’s earthen pot tea are all rich in character and fragrant with tea. Using tea as a drink and tea as food—tea leaf crisps, tea leaf scrambled eggs, tea leaf braised beef, cold-tossed tea leaves… the recipes of the tea mountains inherently possess tea attributes; a table of tea leaf feast is the very essence of Jingmai Mountain.
Through active exploration of integrated development models such as “Agri-culture-tourism” and “Agri-culture-tourism + wellness,” this area has vigorously developed World Heritage tourism, study tours, wellness tourism, and festival tourism, accelerating the innovation of tourism products, models, and formats, as well as service excellence. Mangjing Village has been rated as a gold-medal tourism village in Yunnan Province. As the fame and reputation of Jingmai Mountain rapidly increase, it has attracted large numbers of domestic and international tourists. Since the successful World Heritage application, Jingmai Mountain has received a total of 402,000 visitor arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 33.52%; tourism revenue reached 338 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 184%.
