Tea Picking And Production Reaches Spring Peak In China

CHENGDU, CHINA - APRIL 4: (CHINA OUT) A worker dry tea leaves at a tea factory on April 4, 2005 in Chengdu of Sichuan Province, southwest China. China is the homeland of tea, the country has a history of tea planting and drinking dating back thousands of years ago and began to export her tea cultivation, products and culture more than a thousand years ago. Tea processing is a complex procedure mostly involving season picking, grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying. The tea producing peak falls on spring days around the end of March and early April, when new twigs just begin to grow and carry "one leaf and a bud", many tea factories have to operate at full capacity during the period. Sichuan Province is one of China's important tea producing areas, making an annual output of nearly 60,000 tons of tea. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)