We visited 101 Tea Plantation at Doi Mae Salong (ดอยแม่สลอง Santi Khiri 美斯乐) which is about two hours drive from Chiang Rai city.
Part of the drive was up, windy, cloud shrouded mountain roads with deep valleys covered with lush rainforest and green cultivated fields. The roads were paved, in good condition and safe. We were here in late August - it was cloudy and drizzling lightly on and off.
At Mae Salong, we tried a few different varietals of oolong teas grown and processed by 101 Tea Plantation. (There are a few different tea and coffee plantations here.) We enjoyed all of them, and I was particularly surprised to taste Oriental Beauty Tea 東方美人 here.
Oriental Beauty Tea is not a beauty supplement as the name might suggest but a prized varietal of oolong tea unique to Taiwan.
I last tasted Oriental Beauty Tea in Beipu, Tsinchu in Taiwan. It was an exceptionally fragrant, flavoursome tea in Beipu (and, I just found out also here in Mae Salong).
I wondered what is the connection between Oriental Beauty Tea, Taiwan 東方美人茶 and Mae Salong tea plantations. How did a varietal unique to Taiwan ended up in the remote mountains of north Thailand (just 5 - 6km from the border with Myanmar)?
I found out the surprising epic stories about wars and drugs in a tea cup.
Mae Salong village has a cool Alpine climate and is known as "Little Switzerland". The Chinese name 美斯乐 sounds like 没事了 which means "everything is okay now".
Not so sure about Switzerland but Mae Salong does remind me of Jiufen in Taiwan.
The spacious, well appointed village homes sport a distinctive Chinese feel. The idyllic atmosphere here today belies the village's troubled past.
The ground zero at Mae Salong village, elevation 1130 metres.
Mae Salong is at the heart of the notorious Golden Triangle (which includes the highlands of Yunnan, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar). The climate here is ideal for opium growing, which began in the 16th century.
In 1949, as the Chinese civil war ends, 12,000 remnants and families of ROC's 93 Army Division based in Yunnan retreated into Shan state of newly independent Myanmar (previously British Burma). The vast majority of ROC forces, numbering 2 million, retreated to Taiwan island.
From their Myanmese base, 93 Division made several valiant but futile forays into Yunnan. It was part of the US' idea to contain China / Communism in a pincer grip from Myanmar in the west, and from Korea / Taiwan in the east. The US used drug trade to fund the 93 Division to keep US involvement off the books i.e. secret.
The 93 Division efforts were counterproductive. The US supported forays risked drawing People's Republic of China's army into Burma in pursuit of 93 Division forces. At that time, neither Burma nor the British had resources to deal with any such scenario. It was decided that the 93 Division had better be resettled.
In 1961, about 4,000 93 Division soldiers and families moved to Doi Mae Salong in north Thailand. (The rest moved to Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places.) The Thais' accepted the 93 Army Division's presence on the condition that they help in the fight against Communist insurgency in north Thailand.
Initially, the 93 Division continued to grow poppy, produced heroine, and ran drug trade to fund their living, weapons, training and operations.
General Tuan Shi Wen, leader of 93 Division in Mae Salong put it plainly to a Weekend Telegraph reporter in 1967:
"We have to continue to fight the evil of communism, and to fight you must have an army, and an army must have guns, and to buy guns you must have money. In these mountains, the only money is opium."
After Tuan's death in 1980, with help from Taiwan and Thailand, the 93 Division settlers were encouraged and trained to grow other cash crops such as coffee and oolong tea. Now, Mae Salong produce 80% of teas in Chiang Rai province.
Finally, 没事了 "everything is okay".
One of the oolong varietals brought over was Oriental Beauty 東方美人茶 and that was how a prized Taiwanese tea ended up in Mae Salong (as a substitute for opium poppies in the Golden Triangle).
Today, almost all second and third generation of the 93 Division families are Thai nationals. Among them is Ms Luo 羅 who owns 101 Tea Plantation. Her late father was a 93 Army Division commander.
After sipping tea and eating two lunches (more about that in a separate post), we visited the Martyrs Memorial in Mae Salong which honour the 93 Division soldiers who laid down their lives during service.
Looking for Thai tea and ended up with Taiwanese Oriental Beauty Tea in the Golden Triangle. What a memorable day trip and I look forward to be back, staying a few days here to see more, taste more and hear more stories from locals over Oriental Beauty Tea, of course.
Mae Salong 美斯乐
Address: Chiang Rai 57110, Thailand
Read more 👉
#ShotwithHONOR, #HONORMagic6Pro, #HONORSingapore, Thailand, Chiang Rai, Mae Salong
Oriental Beauty Tea in Taiwan 👈 click
On a side note, besides oolong tea, descendants of 93 Division also grow Arabica coffee in Doi Mae Salong. Among them are the descendants of Colonel 沈家恩 who was killed in action. The family grow coffee at Doi Mae Salong, roast their own Arabica coffee beans and the late colonel's granddaughter 沈培詩 ran 93 Army Cafe in Bangkok (which unfortunately closed in late 2023).
Colonel 沈家恩 was killed during operations against Thai Communist insurgents.
Home Too Far 家太遠了 produced in Taiwan, released in 1990 stars Andy Lau, Ko Chun Hsiung, etc. Theme song sang by Dave Wang.
Home Too Far 2 异域之末路英雄 Taiwanese movie released in 1993 based on the story of 93 Division. Starring top Taiwanese and Hong Kong artistes including Tony Leung, Rosamund Kwan, etc.
Their story is similar to Taiwanese 眷村 folks. Who are KMT army from China who CCP and stranded in Taiwan. Tried Oriental Beauty in 阿里山。They were fantastic!
ReplyDeleteDid you all talk to those old KMT soldiers?
ReplyDeleteJohn Chan sadly it was only a day trip, so didn't have the chance. But there are very few still around. Assuming age 15 + 74 = 89 years old now, at least
ReplyDelete