Undated photos show three tea farmers picking Pu'er tea at a tea garden in Menghai County, southwest China's Yunnan Province. /IC

Tea farmers are busy picking and processing spring tea leaves in provinces and regions across China.

Each year beginning in March, Chinese tea lovers eagerly await the start of the spring tea harvest. In those first early days of spring just after budding, the newly emerging tea leaves are tender, delicate, and sweet, holding within the buds more sugar and flavor compounds than at any other time of the year.

In China, early springtime teas harvested before Qingming Festival, which falls in early April, are called ming qian tea.

Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Wenwen

Editor Ⅱ: Wu Dan

Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong