STORY SLUG: CHN - Panda TeaDATE: March 19, 2012SOURCE: AP HorizonsRESTRICTIONS: AP Horizons Clients OnlySOUND: Natural / MandarinDURATION:5 min 40 secSENT VIA: expedat on internetSHOT LIST: AP Horizons Footage - AP Horizons Clients only Ya'an, China - March 17, 2012 1. close shot panda walking to a bambaoo stick and sniffing and lying down on ground 2. wide shot panda lying on the ground eating bamboo 3. close shot panda eating bamboo 4. wide shot panda garden 5. close shot pandas eating 6. wide shot panda keeper cleaning panda house 7. close shot panda keeper pouring garbage into plastic bin 8. wide pan panda keeper moving the garbage can out of the panda house 9. close and pull-in of panda dung in the garbage can 10.close shot man in panda jacket shoveling panda dung into a plastic bin 11.close shot shovel on the pile of panda dung 12.close shot man's face 13.wide shot of truck for shipment of poop and men shoveling dung 14.close shot men loading panda dung onto the truck 15.close shot panda dung being poured into the truck 16.SOUNDBITE(Mandarin) An Yanshi, Panda Tea creator "The giant panda does not eat the food which is grown with chemical fertilizer and pesticide. It eats the bamboo in the mountains with good ecological environment which grows in purely natural way. Therefore according to the Chinese traditional ecological culture, I am sure that the kind of tea which is fertilized with panda dung must be much better that those with any other fertilizer." 17.wide pan of tea plantation 18.medium shot man picking tea in the middle of the plantation 19.close-up face of An Yanshi 20.wide shot An shoveling panda dung off the truck 21.medium and pull-in panda dung being piled on the earth 22.medium shot man moving panda dung off the truck 23.close racking focus from tea leaves to the pile of panda dung 24.SOUNDBITE(Mandarin) An Yanshi, Panda Tea creator "Chemical fertilizer has damaged the earth quality of our farming land, making the soil hardened and poor. By using the organic fertilizer, we will be able to make the soil of our earth richer and looser and the food products produced by such soil more nutritious, tasty, orginal and natural." 25.wide shot people picking tea at the plantation 26.medium shot girls picking tea 27.close and tilt-up from hands picking tea leaves to faces of girls 28.wide shot people at the plantation 29.close shot tea bag with panda logo 30.close shot face of girl picking tea 31.close shot girl's hand picking tea leaves 32.SOUNDBITE(Mandarin) Wu Dan, 25-year-old car saleswoman "It's too expensive. I wouldn't buy it. It's just too expensive! I would rather spend 220,000 yuan to buy a car than to buy just half kilo of tea. Too expensive!" 33.wide shot farmers working at tea plantation 34.close shot hands pick tea 35.close shot bamboo basket containing tea leaves 36.medium shot of a couple picking tea 37.SOUNDBITE(Mandarin) Huang Yusong, 44-year-old tea farmer of Dingfeng village in Ya'an "Now it is very popular to promote the idea of environment friendly and non-polluted products. I believe the tea products produced with panda dung as fertilizer must be very good." 38.close and racking focus of new buds on tea bushes 39.close up of new buds 40.close shot of panda tea being poured into glass container 41.close up of tea being poured into cup 42.wide shot people sitting around table and holding up tea cups 43.close up of man drinking the first cup of panda tea 44.close tilt-up on the glass of panda tea 45.SOUNDBITE(Mandarin) An Yanshi, Panda Tea creator "we must stop pouring the dung of animals, no matter it is panda, cow or others, into rivers to pollute the water. Also we must stop throwing it away as rubbish. We must recyle it and turn it into treasure by using them as organic fertilizer." 46.medium and racking focuse from panda lying on the ground eating to bamboo shoots STORY LINE An adult giant panda at a conservation in Ya'an of China's southwestern Sichuan Province spends over 12 hours a day on eating up 15 kilos of fresh bamboo. Because of its poor digestive system, the giant panda can only absorb up to 30% of the food it takes and the rest 70% is evacuated as excrement which is rich in fibres and nutrients. The Bifengxia Panda Base in the middle of mountains are keeping 70 pandas which are producing more than 200 tons of poo every year. Almost all the exrement from the panda base was thrown away as rubbish before An Yanshi, a former University teacher in Sichuan province, started to debut a special blend of tea fertilized with the panda poo. He made a deal with the panda base to purchase the panda poo and ship it to his tea plantation to make the basis of his bushes. Last year An Yanshi bought 11 tons of excrement for his 2.5 acres of tea plantation and this year before the harvest of the first batch of his special panda tea, An started to collect more panda poo to prepare the fertilizer for his second harvest in the summer. In An's eyes the brown-color regiments mixed with bamboo fibres are the treasures from the heaven for human beings to grow the most tasty and nutritious tea in the world. "The giant panda does not eat the food which is grown with chemical fertilizer and pesticide. It eats the bamboo in the mountains with good ecological environment which grows in purely natural way. Therefore according to the Chinese traditional ecological culture, I am sure that the kind of tea which is fertilized with panda dung must be much better that those with any other fertilizer," An said. The panda dung was shipped to An's tea plantation 15 kilometers away from the panda base where it will be left in the air to ferment for one month before it can be used to fertilize the tea bushes. Saturday the 17th of March is day when An harvested the first batch of his pooped panda tea. As Chinese tea drinkers regard the first batch of tea to be picked up at the beiginning of spring as the best in quality and tastes, the prices are the highest compared to those in the rest of the year. But when An announced that his first bacth of the panda tea will be the world's most expensive tea at almost 220,000 yuan ($35,000) for half kilo, everyone was shocked. An explained that he will only sell 21 packs of the first batch with 50 gram in each pack to the buyers every year and the money will be donated to an environment foundation he has established. The later harvests of the tea will be much only about 10% of the first batch - still the price of top blend tea. He said apart from making money out of the pooped panda tea, his main mission is to convince the world to protect the environment and replace chemical fertilisers with animal excrements. "Chemical fertilizer has damaged the earth quality of our farming land, making the soil hardened and poor. By using the organic fertilizer, we will be able to make the soil of our earth richer and looser and the food products produced by such soil more nutritious, tasty, orginal and natural," An said. Many were invited to witness the harvest of the world's most expensive tea and some were even invited to help pick the new buds from the bushes. Excited as they were for having the chance to harvest the special tea, they don't think they would try buying some. "It's too expensive. I wouldn't buy it. It's just too expensive! I would rather spend 220,000 yuan to buy a car than to buy just half kilo of tea. Too expensive!" said Wu Dan, a car salewoman who was invited to experience the tea picking process. For the neighbouring tea farmers who are growing tea with mixed fertilizer of organic and chemical elements, the idea of using the panda poo is a smart way of promoting the tea in their village. "Now it is very popular to promote the idea of environment friendly and non-polluted products. I believe the tea products produced with panda dung as fertilizer must be very good," said Huang Yusong, the 44-year-old local tea farmer. Being ridiculed by many for his extravagant claims of the potential anti-cancer health benefits of the tea, An said he is very serious about his job of promoting the idea of recycling the organic animal excrements, and that by planting the pooped panda tea, he wants to remind the world that it is now the time to change our life style into a more natural and environment friendly way, before it is too late. "we must stop pouring the dung of animals, no matter it is panda, cow or others, into rivers to pollute the water. Also we must stop throwing it away as rubbish. We must recyle it and turn it into treasure by using them as organic fertilizer," He said.[1]