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Wenshan Baozhong tea is one of northern Taiwan’s most celebrated teas, produced from Wenshan all the way to Pinglin. In Shiding District, New Taipei City—an area blessed with pristine mountains and water—a young grower named Tseng Jen-tsung left an urban career, came home, and took up his father’s craft and exacting standards so that top-quality, pesticide-free Wenshan Baozhong can keep filling teahouses with fragrance. The Tseng family has farmed for generations. Jen-tsung used to work for a construction company in the city, but after attending the “Soaring Bird” course run by the Taoyuan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station he quit his city job and returned to the mountains of Shiding to carry on his father’s tea-making enterprise. The family gardens enjoy an exceptional setting; their secluded beauty makes them a favorite haunt of photographers. At dawn a thin mist hovers over the tea bushes and the jade-green Feicui Reservoir, a scene worthy of an ink-wash paradise. At dusk an egg-yolk sun and blazing clouds are mirrored in the lake’s unruffled surface, sliding westward amid gasps of admiration. Jen-tsung’s pride is the “Bagua Tea Garden” left by his father. On a small hill the bushes, shaped by the terrain, line up like the trigrams of the I Ching spread across the land. “Only insiders know this sight,” he says. “Photographers arrive at dawn and stay till evening for that perfect shot.” Besides mastering his family’s planting and crafting skills, he embraces new techniques, attends Council of Agriculture courses, and works with the local farmers’ association to market his brand. His meticulously tended teas are frequent prize-winners, yet he refuses to stand still. The memory of his tranquil homeland drew him back, and now he strives to share its purity through tea, moving toward healthy organic agriculture by growing tea that passes tests for zero pesticide and zero toxin, so every cup conveys the clarity of the water and the natural environment. Under his care the gardens are coming alive: on summer nights fireflies dance on the mountain breeze. These insects, which can survive only in unpolluted places, are the best biological indicator of a chemical-free ecosystem and the most beautiful compliment to his work. “Where there’s water here, there are fireflies; where fireflies swarm, frogs follow—so watch out for snakes when you walk through the grass,” he jokes with visitors. “Don’t fear these creatures; only a healthy environment supports such life, and only then will the crop be healthy.” For his tea gardens and his leaves—health and vitality—this is Tseng Jen-tsung’s philosophy of farming.