Tea Destinations in Yunnan

When talking about Tea Destinations in Yunnan, we will refer to the four major Puer tea production areas in Yunnan: Xishuangbanna, Pu’er, Lincang and Baoshan. Yunnan, renowned for their climates and environments, which not only provide excellent growing conditions for Puer tea, but also produce unique taste profiles in the produced Puer tea. YunnanPu’er tea is produced in almost every county and prefecture in the province. The best known Puer tea areas are the Six Famous Tea Mountains, a group of mountains in Xishuangbanna. Many other areas of Yunnan also produce Puer tea such as Kunming, Dali and Honghe. Yunnan prefectures that are major producers of Puer tea include Lincang, Dehong, Simao, Xishuangbanna, and Wenshan. Region is but one factor in assessing a Puer tea, and Puer from any region of Yunnan is as prized as any from the Six Famous Tea Mountains if it meets other criteria, such as being wild growth, hand-processed tea.

Major Tea Destinations in Yunnan

Four major production areas of Pu’er tea in Yunnan: Xishuangbanna, Pu’er, Lincang and Baoshan have the largest areas of tea plantations and tea mountains.

Tea Area Distribution in Xishuangbanna

The whole Xishuangbanna has 82000 acre of ancient tea garden, which is distributed in 19 towns and more than 100 villages in two counties and one city. Banna tea area is one of the area with the longest production history and the highest output of Pu’er tea. Distribution of ancient tea mountains in Xishuangbanna (6 to the East and 8 to the west of Lancang River). Of the fourteen ancient tea mountains, seven in Menghai County to the west of Lancang River, FIve in Mengla county to the East, one in west of river  and one in east of river in Jinghong City. The age of ancient tea trees varies from 100 years to 1700 years, but most of them are between 200-500 years. 

Tea Mountains in Xishuangbanna:

Tea Area Distribution in Pu’er City

The major tea producing areas in Pu’er are: Caiyuan, Banzhong, Bisheng and Yongxi. With the wide spreading fame of Puer tea, Tea Mountains are becoming popular tourist destinations for visitors to Puer. There are many tea mountains in Puer, among which the most famous ones are the Jingmai Tea Mountain. 

Tea Mountains in Pu’er City:

Tea Area Distribution in Pu’er Border

Traditionally, Lancang, Ximeng and Menglian are called the three counties of the border area in Pu’er. Because they are located in a remote area, the Pu’er tea they produce is not valued. With the discovery of the transitional King of tea in Bangwei (邦葳)in recent years, the ancient tea of Lancang began to emerge. It attracted lot people’s attention because of  the unique aroma of Jingmai (景迈) mountain ancient tree tea and it called as “thousands acre  thousands year”. In fact, the ancient tree resources of the three border counties are not limited to this. With the in-depth study of ancient tea trees, we began to pay attention to the Daheishan Mountain range, which is a magical place full of treasures like Ailao Mountainand Wuliang Mountain. 

Tea Area Distribution in Lincang

Lincang City has a total area of 1.3 million acre of tea garden in the territory, including 400000 acre of wild ancient tea tree community and 650000 acre of cultivated ancient tea garden (over 90000 acre of ancient tea garden over 100 years old). Lincang is the most important supplier of Tuo tea raw materials for Xiaguan tea factory, and also provide a large number of high-quality tea for Kunming tea factory and Menghai tea factory. Lincang tea is the hero behind many famous teas.

The major tea areas in Lincang city rank as follow according to the tea output, which is Fengqing County, Yunxian County, Yongde County, Shuangjiang County, Gengma County, Linxiang District, Cangyuan County and Zhenkang County (according to the output in 2009).

Tea Mountains in Lincang:

Tea Area Distribution in Baoshan

The distribution area of ancient tea trees in Baoshan is nearly 15000 acre.  The most concentrated distribution and representative cultivation of the ancient tea garden are  Tengchongbawai(腾冲坝外) Tea Garden, Wenjiatang (文家塘) Ancient Tea Garden and Huangjiazhai (黄家寨) Ancient Tea Garden. In particular, the ancient trees of Gaoligong Mountain range, although it not exceed the characters of the other three tea areas, the strong tea tastes and pure flavor still the most important ancient tea tree resource.

Read more about  The Most Famous Puer Tea Mountains in Yunnan Province

Regional Distribution of Tea Plantations in Yunnan