Terraced Tea Fields In Mountains

Curving hillsides of clipped tea bushes fall away in dozens of narrow terraces, each ring following the contour of the slope like a giant fingerprint. Pickers in wide straw hats move along the stone paths, wicker baskets strapped to their backs, plucking new leaves from the hedges. Wildflowers in red, blue and yellow crowd the low stone walls between terraces, and a paved footpath winds down through the fields toward a cluster of wooden houses in the valley. Beyond them, purple mountains rise into a sky filled with soft white clouds, some slopes still wrapped in morning mist. Pine trees stand at the ridge on the right, framing the scene. The terraces spiral deeper into the valley in unbroken bands of green, each one a ring a picker could walk alone.