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Monday, June 15, 2009

Green Tea Plantation

We visited Korea’s largest green tea plantation this weekend.  It is located on one of the many hillsides in this country, about 1hr (on curvy roads) south of Gwangju.  It was a cloudy day – though not raining.  It was such a beautiful place to wander through.  We were able to see the tea being harvested, which was fascinating.  Also, we checked out a grove of bamboo (I just learned they are in the grass family and are not trees) located on the plantations – spectacular.

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Beautiful tree-lined walkways to the green tea gardens.

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Climbing, climbing … up the hillside.

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Notice the grave site in the middle of the rows of tea.

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So, very, very Korean to take a photo where you are supposed to take a photo.  So, of course we took a photo. :o)

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Such beautiful bark on the trees.

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Transportation up the hillside for the workers and the bags of tea they are harvesting.

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These ladies are ‘mowing’ the hedges of green tea.  It shoots the leaves into the bag that is attached.

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You can see the leaves in the window of the bag.

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At the end of the row they have to flip the machine around and start down the next one.

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A freshly shaven green tea plant.

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These stairs lead to the top of the hill.

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It takes a lot of workers for one mower.  Only 2 are actually holding the handles (one on each side of the row).  The rest are handling the bags of leaves.

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Green Tea anyone?

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On to the bamboo.

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So beautiful.

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So peaceful.

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So tall.

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