The freshly-picked leaves make their way into huge woks where they will be heated to bring out the fragrance. (Photo: China Daily) Photo Gallery>>>

    "Only the illiterate elderly or mid-aged women like me pick tea," she added.

    A good tea picker generally harvests 2 kilograms of fresh leaves in 10 hours, with means a payment of 30 yuan (3.9 U.S. dollars) per day, plus free meals and accommodation provided by the local tea grower.

    "Honestly, I do not like this job because it is too hard," Luo said bitterly.

    "My waist aches as I stand too long; my fingers are always frozen in the cold mornings; in summer I have to bear the powerful heat of the midday sun," she said.

    However, Luo appreciates her employer's offer of suntan lotion even though she is often too busy to remember the extra protection.

    Occasionally, she gets to taste a cup of the freshly-made West Lake Longjing tea, which can fetch as much as 4,000 yuan (517 U.S. dollars) per kilogram in March.

    "I just cannot understand why it is so expensive?" she shook her head. "There is no great difference between the green tea grown in West Lake and that in my hometown, which is just 40 yuan (5 U.S. dollars) per kilogram."

    However, Luo loves the pure and fresh smell of the tea being processed in the homes. "It melts away the exhaustion of the day," she said.

    The spring tea harvest usually lasts one month, until the middle of April. After that, most of the migrant tea pickers will leave the village. But Luo will remain, working as a maid for the tea grower, and then to harvest the summer tea from May to October.

    The mother of two hates to be away from home for so long, especially as her husband works in Shanghai, which means her children have to look after themselves.

    "My dream is to build a three-story house for my children, which requires over 100,000 yuan (12,926 U.S. dollars). I know it will take years to make such a huge amount, but my husband and I are really trying. Once we achieve this goal, my life as a tea picker in Hangzhou will end," Luo said.

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