Pinglin, Wenshan- an appellation famous for what is known as the ‘fragrance of Taiwan’. Most of us city slickers can not understand how the air can smell like a perfume atelier in a big open mountain, that the breeze carries the sweetly intense fragrance of gardenias and ginger flowers. Along the way trekking through the Baochong tea farm, we found out that a devastating typhoon from 2 months ago had wiped out 2/3 of the tea production that would be this coming winter. Seeing the little infant tea branches newly planted in the 60 degree hills, praying that the upcoming typhoon will spare the massive soil run off, the tragedy and glory of great tea is intertwined together. Great teas are grown on steep high mountains, which are subject to the landslide of typhoon drenched soil. We live by the weather, explained Wenshan Mr. Lee, matter of factly. I realized at that moment that these tea farmers accept circumstances as is, and does not assign blame to anyone. They simply face forward and keep going.
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