Posted by: Bethan

Despite living in China for 2 years in the past, I had never visited Guangxi province before my recent visit to see JING’s jasmine tea production.  Given the size of China, this might not seem that strange, but every single person visiting me whilst I worked in the Middle Kingdom went to the famous city of Guilin or the travellers mecca of Yangshuo to see the mountainous karste peaks and the Lijiang river that have made Guangxi famous.

Jasmine Flower Picker

I travelled to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, rather than Guilin, to begin my journey to our tea farmers, and it was obvious that I was not taking the standard travellers route.  Virtually all major cities in China have considerable numbers of foreigners now that China welcomes tourism to the country, but it appeared that Nanning was not going to be the same as I found myself to be the only westerner boarding the large flight.

It is always amusing to travel in China if you can speak Mandarin but are a ‘laowai’ (foreigner) as discussions immediately begin about you with the reasonable expectation that you can’t understand what is being said.  As I boarded a bus at the airport to go to the plane, my fellow passengers began considerably long conversations about how I must be a student going to university in Nanning, wasn’t my skin really white and my eyes terribly blue?  The chatter soon stopped when I recieved a phone call from a Chinese friend in Shanghai wanting to make sure I was ok and I answered in Mandarin!

I spent no time in Nanning itself but travelled straight to the jasmine producing region several hours drive away from the city.  The country side was certainly not what I was expecting, as it has none of the impressive peaks of Guilin, but a more gentile, rolling countryside passed by my window.  There were few large towns in between Nanning and my destination which made a refreshing change from Shanghai and the lush green scenery captivated me for the entire journey.

Inspecting the Jasmine Flowers

The first thing that struck me as we travelled was that the traditional Chinese hats that many people wear in the countryside were made from metallic foil.  I have never seen this before, and found out very quickly that it was specific to Guangxi.  It certainly seems sensible too, as the sun was exceptionally strong (our car overheated twice on the long journey!).

Guangxi is a province that relies heavily on agriculture in its economy, producing huge amounts of jasmine, rice, sweet potatoes, sweet corn and 85% of the world’s star anise.  As a result, the food in the province is fantastic and extremely varied.  Warm sweet corn juice was given to us at every meal and it was delicious.  We also ate large numbers of ‘zongzi’ a rice cake dish that is traditionally eaten only at the dragon boat festival, but is a local delicacy of Guangxi.

I had dinner with the head of the agriculture in the region one evening, and he explained to me that for many agricultural goods, Guangxi produces the majority of the world’s crops, but that the people in the area do not make a lot of money from this, as most trade is done through agents and many Western companies never go to Guangxi direct, preferring to buy from companies in Hong Kong or the southern coastal cities.  This has meant that Guangxi’s economy has suffered greatly since the ‘opening up’ of China, and in comparison to her neighbouring industrial province Guangdong, she is extremely poor.  I was certainly pleased that JING works direct with the farmers in the area and proud that I can now sit and write about the experience.

Having come from Shanghai and leaving for Shenzhen immediately afterwards, Guangxi was a fantastic break from the often overwhelming pace of life in these urban centres.  The people were exceptionally friendly and the food was fantastic.  I feel very priveleged to have been to Nanning rather than Guilin, although every time I see the spectacular peaks of that region, I think I should probably head back there next year!