The Protection Act of Ancient Tea Tree in Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Guizhou Province was put into effect on Dec 1, reassuring the protection of ancient tea trees in Qianxinan.

With a high altitude and many cloudy days, Qianxinan is a famous tea producing area in China. The unique terrain, soil, climate and environment combine perfectly to produce top-quality tea. 

Reputed as "China's home to ancient tea trees", this region holds a long history of tea planting and processing. In 1980, the world's oldest ancient tea seed fossil was discovered here. 11,590 ancient tea trees receive special care in Pu'an county, Qinglong county and Xingyi city, one of which in Pu'an is as old as around 4,800 years.

According to the statistics of the tea research institute of Guizhou, in the 1980s there were around 100,000 wild ancient tea trees in Qinglong and Pu'an alone with about 300 different species of tea trees. But in 2008, an investigation of ancient tea tree resources revealed that there were only 3,329 ancient tea trees aged more than 100 years and a lot of rare species suffered notable damage. 

The Act defines the ancient tea tree resources and specifies the duties and responsibilities of the government and relevant departments. It also stipulates the punitive and incentive measures for the exploitation and conservation of the historic resource.

Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture holds a press conference for the Protection Act of Ancient Tea Tree on Dec 1. [Photo by Wang Huan/chinanews.com/]