Ancient Tea Trees in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

Tea Adventures in ChinaWhat is Tea

Oct 20

Written By Charlene Tranquil Tuesdays

Woman Picking Tea Leaves from Tea Tree

Wild Tea Trees

An Ancient Tea Tree

meaning 300+ years old

Taking a Break from Tea Picking

Ancient Tea Trees on Bulang Mountain

Holding a Tea Bud in the Forest

Tea Picker Descending the Mountain

Local Indigenous Woman Walking Down the Mountain

Love that She was Just Carrying a Teapot

Forest Where Tea Trees Grow Wild

View of a Local Village Near Tea Trees

Villagers Withering Freshly Picked Leaves

Freshly Picked Leaves vs. Almost Fully Withered Tea Leaves

On the Family Home Processing Scale

Community Tea Withering Station

Community Tea Withering

Village Rolling Machine

Purchasing machines like this are capital intensive, so there is one that the whole village shares at this community withering station.

Bags of Withered and Dried Tea Ready to Sell

These are ready to sell to producers who will either press them into discs as raw pu’er or ferment them to make “ripened” pu’er.
Xishuangbanna, Yunnan © 2010 Tranquil Tuesdays

You Can Also Just Sell Your Freshly Picked Leaves Here

And not bother with the following processing steps of withering, rolling and drying.
Xishuangbanna, Yunnan © 2010 Tranquil Tuesdays

Another Villager's Home Operation

withering and drying in his front yard

Withering on the Road

similar to what we saw on Phoenix Mountain in Guangdong Province.

Two Baskets of Freshly Picked Leaves

Final Step of Picking Out Stems and Straw

At the Yunnan Tea Research Institute

Tea Cultivated at the Yunnan Tea Research Institute

More Tea Cultivated at the Tea Research Institute

Local Architecture of the Dai Indigenous People

South of the Clouds

Yunnan Province’s name in Chinese means literally “South of the Clouds.”

View photos from multiple trips to the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan. This area (including neighboring regions in Burma and India) is acknowledged as home to the world’s original tea plants.

zoomed in map of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. You see it is right on the border of Burma and Laos.

Tea AdventuresViewYunnanXishuangbannaancient tea treestea treesPu'er TeaBurmaDai PeopleBulang PeopleBulang MountainTea Basics

Charlene Tranquil Tuesdays

Ancient Tea Trees in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

Chaozhou, a Gong Fu tea city

Tea Retreat at Moganshan, Zhejiang

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