We were high in the mountains of Xishuangbanna, as far south as you can get in Yunnan, skirting the borders of Myanmar and Laos. The drive was typical, textbook beauty: mountains thick with rubber tree forests, pu'er tea plantations and banana palms and tiny Dai villages. Hidden among the fields of green, I spotted an odd collection of wooden boxes near a tent on the side of the road
We had run into the current home of Wei Dajing, a 17-year-old apprentice (学徒) beekeeper who was manning his hives. Wei was fresh to the beekeeping life, and had been on the job for just two months and was here to learn from a master beekeeper. Their tent and hive set-up is always temporaryThis particular spot was stationed at a sunny patch of yellow flowers. Once these flowers die, the rubber trees will be flowering, so we will move toward them,” he told Sam.
Like thieves in the night, the beekeepers will stealthily pack up their hives in the dark once the bees go to sleep. “They are most active around midday when they are collecting their nectar (花蜜)Wei explained.
The hives were humming, and bees were invasively buzzing around Wei as he spoke to us. Pieces of fruit lay drying among the hives, used to feed the bees and give them an extra boost of energy once Wei bottles up their hard-earned honey. Sam, who also has a couple of his own small hives in his backyard, tells us you must always leave a little bit of honey in the hive
We waved goodbye to Wei. Back at Sam's house, he gave us a bowlful of local honeyLacking the usual sweetness of honey but instead rich with a more savory, spiced flavor, it tasted just like China.
A. It was smooth, thin and runny.
B. Wei skillfully collected honey from the hives.
C. Otherwise the bees get fed up and abandon you.
D. Maybe it is the flowers that give such unique taste to the honey.
E. By 10 pm they are asleep in their hives, which is when we move.
F. I asked our excellent guide and new best friend, Sam, to pull over.
G. Wei and his master move their camp as the flowers bloom and die.
