Spring Tea Harvest: Disappearing beauty: Picking and roasting tea by hand

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Turning to east China where farmers in Hangzhou have begun this year's first tea harvest. It happens once a year in early April around China's traditional Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. CGTN's Han Peng visited the city to learn more about the challenges farmers there face.

Tea represents a slow lifestyle, but the making of it is a race against time.

From these fields surrounding the picturesque Hangzhou West Lake, China's famous Longjing tea is harvested in spring.

TANG CHUNYIN TEA FARMER "Every day, we start from 6:00 o'clock in the morning and work until 6:30 in the evening."

Farmers have fewer than 20 days to pick the tender tea leaves, which just sprouted.

Later this month, heavy rain and rising temperatures will make them overgrow and lose their aroma. In southern China's spring, the weather changes fast. Bamboo hats protect the tea pickers from the heat and rain.

While some farmers are already using machines to harvest, here in Hangzhou, people believe the premium quality of Longjing has to be handpicked.

If picking is a job of familiarity, the next step demands real craftsmanship -- roasting the tea leaves. It has to be done the same day the leaves are picked. To prevent oxidation, the sooner the roasting starts, the better.

Traditionally, it's only done by hand.

QIU XIAOHUA TEA ROASTER "You need to use your hand to feel the temperature during the roasting. If it's too hot, it could be overfried. Sometimes you can easily get your hand burned."

It takes half a day to roast just one kilo of the leaves by hand, a combination of patience and labor. The celebrated practice is safeguarded on the State Council's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. But it's disappearing in the face of modern technology.

QIU XIAOHUA TEA ROASTER "Machine-frying is five times faster, but it may over-fry some of the leaves or break the shape of them."

Today, even Qiu Xiaohua is using machines.

Now in his 40s, he is the youngest in his village who still knows about the skill.

QIU XIAOHUA TEA ROASTER "It's too tiring, and isn't worth the labor. Now I'm only roasting for those who really care."

HAN PENG HANGZHOU Qingming Festival is the best time to have a cup of West Lake Longjing tea. It's also a time to reflect how our cultural heritage can live peacefully with modernity in the fast changing world. Han Peng, CGTN, Hangzhou.