Tan moves honey bees away from the hive. This is one of the most difficult tasks an apiarist faces and it requires great patience. [Photo/wxrb.com]

For most, the viscous nectar called honey is something bought in jars at supermarkets and its process, place of origin, and makers are both unknown and somewhat irrelevant. But to Tan Xifan, a Wuxi-based beekeeper for 50 nearly years, the ancient art has been a way of life and serves as dwindling connection between city dwellers and the natural world.

Tan's impassioned appeal for fellow Wuxi residents to try beekeeping, or apiary, comes at a time when the 71-year-old's own career has been severed by a broke a leg.

Given the extremity of Wuxi's urban changes witnessed by Tan and his wife, Qian Nongdi, during their lifetime, it is understandable that they worry about the future of their treasured skill.

Tan married at the age of 21 and together with Qian slowly built up a small 11-mu (7,300 square-meters) farm in the Huazhuang sub-district of Binhu district planting crops, raising chickens, cultivating silkworms, and keeping bees.

The space set aside by the couple for apiary was hardly expansive- just a small wooden hut packed with a number of hives that gradually increased over time. By the time Tan was 50 years-old he had gained a golden reputation locally as a bee expert and through 30 years of hard work he increased the number of hives from three to 40.