Due to the plummeting price of terrace tea and the increasing
value of ancient tree tea, many terrace tea gardens underwent another
transformation in the name of restoration of the ‘‘missing’’
ancient tea forest. In Pu’er Prefecture specifically, the restoration
of the ancient tea forest has been initiated under the prefecturalwide
campaign called Scientific Pu’er (kexue pu’er). Terrace tea
gardens, under the campaign of Scientific Pu’er, were planned for
conversion into ‘‘ecological tea gardens’’ (shengtai chayuan).
Ecological tea gardens represent the ‘‘transitional’’ landscape between
terrace tea gardens and ancient tea forest. Particularly in
Pu’er Prefecture, owners of terrace tea gardens were asked to remove
some of the tea trees and then plant five different kinds of
local tree species, including agilawood, houpu, camphortree, white
bouhinia, and downy cherry. According to local villagers in Mangjing,
they were asked to cut down almost two thirds of their tea
trees in their terrace tea gardens (see Fig. 4). In addition, no pesticides
or chemical nutrients were allowed in the ecological tea
gardens. The aim was to restore the ‘‘natural environment’’, similar
to that of the ancient tea forest. The ecological tea gardens were