According to judges from the Chiayi District Court,Wang Cheh-chien, 51, a tea dealer based in Leyeh Village of Chiayi County’s Alishan Township, was discovered to have purchased ordinary tea leaves that were machine-collected from tea fields in low-lying areas in the central county of Nantou since July 2005.

He paid prices between NT$160 to NT$450 per 600 grams and then, after simply processing the products, sold the tea leaves to visiting Chinese tourists at more than 10 times the price he paid — between NT$4,000-8,000 per 600 grams.

Wang presented the leaves as hand-picked Oolong tea originating from the Alishan mountains.

Forty-five percent of the proceeds from the sales were paid to travel agents as commissions for bringing the Chinese tourists to his shop, the judges said.

Meanwhile, Pai Ming-hui, 43, another Alishan Township tea dealer, was discovered to have also purchased machine-collected, average tea leaves from low-lying areas at NT$400 per 600 grams since early 2006 and then resold the products to Chinese tourists as “Alishan high mountain Oolong tea” at prices ranging from 400 Chinese yuan (NT$1,550) to 480 yuan per 600 grams.

Both Wang and Pai, who were charged in September 2006, admitted to conning the Chinese tourists, according to the Chiayi judges.

The judges decided to cut the sentence for Wang from one year and 10 months in jail to 11 months, with three years’ probation, after he expressed remorse and offered to donate NT$450,000 for public interests.

The 18-month sentence for Pai was also reduced to nine months in prison, with three years’ probation after he also expressed remorse and offered to donate NT$300,000 to help the public, the judges said.

Alishan is one of the tourist attractions that the Chinese tourists consider as a “must see” in Taiwan.

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