Mengsong

As promised, some more photos from our time in Yunnan this year. This time the photos are from a small village in Mengsong area. A friend from Menghai took us on a trip to these mountains to see some of the biggest trees he knew of in the area. As we walked up the hill and I asked if I could take some photos he said sure, but please don’t tell people exactly where they are – it would be a shame if too many people came here and spoiled the environment or the local people.

Sure enough, as we climbed the hill, we were greeted by bigger and bigger trees.

Until we arrived at the biggest tree I’ve seen – bigger than the ‘King of trees’ at Lao Banzhang, bigger than the ‘King of trees’ in Nannuo, this tree had no such lofty title to attract tourists, instead just being another tree on the mountain, unknown except to a few.

You can see from the leaf edges that the drought was affecting even this huge tree with such a deep root system. It’s not wonder that the smaller tree below which seemed like it had had a hard time in previous years was close to death this year.

I was encouraged to see evidence of the natural clearing methods in use by the locals. These grasses had been felled by hand and left to fertilise the trees surrounding them.

I think this area showed a perfect balance of having a wide range of plants growing amongst the tea trees. All too often the locals cut down other trees believing this will provide the tea trees with more nutrients to draw from. I think the opposite is true with nature providing the balance that these old teas trees need to flourish.