China's Most Beautiful Tea Garden - 916 Tea Garden

March 28, 2024, the weather forecast was overcast turning to clear. When I got up in the morning, it was still gloomy, and I was waiting for the sun to peek out. By 9 o'clock, there was still no sign of clearing, so I had to set off by car. At this time, the roads in Hefei city were still congested. It takes 1 hour and 10 minutes to get to the 916 Tea Garden by highway, and 1 hour and 30 minutes by the lower roads. Seeing that the weather was not good, I chose not to take the highway and drove leisurely. Due to the delay in leaving the city and taking a detour through Shucheng county town, it took an extra 20 minutes to reach the destination. The entrance to the 916 Tea Field is quite imposing. When we got to the gate, the navigation system told us not to enter but to take the side road. I didn't listen to it and went straight in, finding a parking spot to stop. It was only after a full round of play that I realized the tea garden was not fully enclosed; the main gate was just a formality. The 916 Tea Garden is located in Shucha Town, Shucheng County, Anhui Province, and is famous worldwide for Chairman Mao Zedong's inspection visit on September 16, 1958. Shucha Commune was the first people's commune established in Anhui Province on September 9, 1958, and the second people's commune in the country. In the 1970 and 1978 editions of the Anhui Province primary school Chinese textbooks, there was an article titled 'The Red Sun Shines Over Shucha', which described Chairman Mao's inspection of Shucha. We learned about Shucha from the textbooks. The tea produced here is Shucheng Xiaolan Flower Tea, made from normal buds ranging from one bud and one leaf just unfurling to one bud and three leaves, refined through a special process into a baked green tea. It has the quality characteristics of 'three orchids': orchid shape, orchid grass color, and orchid fragrance, and has been designated as a geographical indication of agricultural products of the People's Republic of China.