Chinese and foreign tea lovers will be able to identify the well-known Longjing Tea produced in east China's Zhejiang Province by a special logo authenticating its place of origin, an internationally recognized trade protection measure.
Twenty-one tea-producing enterprises in West Lake, Qiantang andYuezhou in the scenic area of Hangzhou, where the orchid-shape green tea grows, were authorized Friday to use the origin protection logo of a red map of China centered in a green background.
Yang Ye, vice-director of Zhejiang Provincial Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, said that the origin protection treatment not only symbolized that the tea was produced in the above three regions but also guaranteed that the tea was produced and treated in accordance with clearly defined procedures.
There are some 300 tea-producing enterprises in Zhejiang Province.
To protect the genuine Longjing Tea from bogus brands, 12 Longjing tea specialty stores selling real products were set up inBeijing, Shanghai and Chengdu in 2001. Similar stores will be launched in Hong Kong, Dalian, Xi'an and other cities later this year.
Longjing tea got its name in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and was originally grown in the Old Longjing Temple in Hangzhou. Now the Longjing tea producing regions cover an area of some 20,000 square kilometers.
(People's Daily March 30, 2002)
