The UN Food and Agriculture Organization recently recognized three sites in China as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.
These three regions included an ancient tea-producing area in Anxi county in Fujian province, a nomadic livestock rearing area in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system in Shexian county in Hebei province.
To date, 18 sites in China have been added to the FAO’s list of global agricultural heritage systems. The network now consists of 65 systems in 22 countries around the world, with China being the largest single contributor to the list.
The three sites were designated through an online assessment in Rome last week. They were recognized for their use of traditional practices, knowledge and maintenance of biodiversity and the ecosystem, the FAO said.
The Anxi Tieguanyin tea-producing area is located in southeast Fujian. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the tea produced in Anxi was exported through the Maritime Silk Road, a passage for commercial and cultural communication between ancient China and the world, the ministry said.
Tieguanyin, the most famous tea variety from Anxi, started production between 1725 and 1735. It belongs to the semi-fermented Oolong tea variety, a category between green tea and black tea…