Saturday's earthquake and subsequent aftershocks in Sichuan province have paralyzed tea production on a mountain famous for supplying China's imperial families for more than 1,000 years.

Because of its proximity to Lushan county, the epicenter of the magnitude-7 quake, Mengding Mountain has seen a lot of damage to many of its centuries-old buildings, which survived a magnitude-8 earthquake in the same province five years ago.

"Many houses built with wood in the mountain have collapsed. Now and then, debris still falls down," said Jian Shuquan, deputy director of the Center for the Study of International Tea Culture in Mengding Mountain, who surveyed the mountain on Sunday.