Young volunteers work in Yunnan’s coffee villages

A bee flies among the coffee flowers. (Photo by Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua)

On a usual afternoon in Spring, a group of coffee lovers gathered in Dakaihe village of Simao district, southwest Yunnan’s Pu’er city. Dakaihe village, located closely to the central urban area, was the first village that started planting coffee in large scale in Simao district. The coffee lovers worked as volunteers in coffee fields, bean-drying fields and brewing counters.

In recent years, many young people came to villages of Yunnan to work as volunteers and enjoy a special tour of coffee at the same time. This has become a new way to know more about Yunnan.

Yang Zhuoqing, a 27-year-old girl and a doctoral student of Minzu University of China, came to a Simao village in March, 2023 for her field study of her thesis. “I heard about coffee volunteers in this village. Then, I came to this coffee estate as a volunteer,” said Yang. After her volunteer work, she would like to continue her field study back to the village.

  

Yang Zhuoqing brews coffee. (Photo by Xinhua)

When Yang was in Beijing, instant coffee was much more familiar to her. Now, she knew more about coffee planting and tasting.

Pu’er is famous for the Ancient Tea Horse Road, ancient wild tea trees and Pu’er tea. It became the largest and most productive coffee producing area in China, with a coffee planting area of 679,000 mu and a production of 55,700 tons in 2022. The Pu’er coffees output reached 5.045 billion yuan.

Fields of coffee trees have also become a great scenery. Tourism related to coffee producing area is booming. Some tourists themselves became coffee volunteers. “Nowadays, many coffee estates hire volunteers to join the work making coffee from beans to drinks,” said Yang Hongjian.

Born in 1990s, Yang is the founder of Yeyatang River Valley Coffee Estate. The volunteers not only joined the producing process but also knew more about the development of villages trough coffee making, added Yang.

Yang was once a teacher. His father and grandfather were the first farmers planting coffee in large scale. As the third generation of coffee grower, Yang quit his job in 2020 and came back to the village to build up a coffee estate. With his partner Wang Guoliyi, they created a volunteer work platform.

Volunteers can take part in different process like planting, protecting and picking according to different seasons. Coffee berry picking starts from mid-October to the following March. Volunteers work in the field like the coffee farmers putting the red and ripe berries into sacks and transport them to the primary processing plant.

Farmers pick coffee berries in Yeyatang River Valley Coffee Estate. (Photo by Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua)

Coffee volunteer projects are becoming popular in Pu’er. The Pu’er Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism promoted the platform as it combines coffee with tourism. Certificates were sent to the volunteers according their work.

Coffee volunteer projects are helpful in stimulating the integration of coffee and tourism, said Zhou Xiao, deputy director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Simao district, Pu’er city. The projects will bring more tourists here in the future.

Source: Xinhua; trans-editing by Wang Yunya