15Days Yunnan Ancient Puer Tea Culture Tour

You’ll begin your journey to the diverse and captivating province of Yunnan from the capital city, Kunming. Upon arrival at the Kunming International Airport, meet your local guide and transfer to the hotel. And then, you will take a leisurely stroll along the Green Lake, a charming area of teahouses and small boutiques selling handicrafts and beautiful local paintings. If time permits, you will have a Kunming city tour.

Enjoy welcoming dinner of Yunnan Flavouring food with crossing Bridge Rice Noodle and Steam Pot Chicken/Qiguoji.

— Kunming is the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, a primarily agricultural province of 45 million. Kunming has a population of five million and is located in one of the world’s most geographically, ethnically, biologically and linguistically diverse regions. Situated at 1,900 meters (6,233ft) above sea level and 25° north of the Equator it has a rather unique and pleasant climate for a Chinese city.

After breakfast, we will drive around 8 hours to Puer City; Situated in the northwest of Yunnan Province, Puer has an important location in China’s southwestern boundary, neighboring Laos, Vietnam and Burma and sharing a 486 kilometers boundary line with these three countries. Kunming is about 550 kilometers from Puer.  We will be relaxed around the Plum Lake which is 4 KM away from the downtown;

In the morning, drive up to Puer Tea Gardens, overlooking Puer City where Austin was interviewed by the media. You will explore the Chinese Tea Institute and their library of dried tea leaves before being whisked off to a tea tasting and more interviews. Visit the Puer tea factory and experience how local people cook the Puer tea cakes.

In the afternoon, transfer around 2 hours to Jinghong City. Then continue the driving to Menglun Tropical Botanical Garden in Mengla County; Stay at Menglun Botanical Garden Hotel

After a noodle breakfast, visit Menglun Tropical Botanical Garden. Situated 103 kilometers, or 3 hour ride, from Jinghong, the Tropical Botanical Garden was founded in 1958 and is currently playing an important role in research in the areas of medicinal plants, taxonomy, economic plants and biochemistry. This garden proudly holds 3,000 species of plants, one of the richest botanical concentrations all over the world.After visiting Menglun Tropical Botanical Garden, drive along a winding road through a tropical rain forest and stopped briefly at a rubber tree orchard on the way to Yiwu.

Take a bumpy dirt road to see an 800yr old tea tree overlooking a gorgeous lush valley in Zhengshan Mountain. On the way back you walk along the Tea Horse Trail which begins in Yiwu village and goes all the way to Tibet. Our next stop is He Tian Neng’s old tea workshop where you drink tea and see the stone blocks used to press tea cakes. Mr. He then will take you to his newer workshop where you watch as workers make puer tea cakes by hand using the following method:

–Yiwu is one of the 6 famous puer Tea Mountains and home to a puer tea museum which we visited along with the start of the Tea Horse Trail. In the evening you hang out in the small Yiwu Village, have tea and beer in front a shop and fired off roman candles in the street. Glenn fired an errant shot, narrowly missed Kevin’s head, before we retired to our slightly rough accommodations for the night.

Today we got the chance to make our own puer tea cakes at a small Cha Ma Shi factory in Youle, another of of the 6 famous puer tea mountains. After steaming, pressing and wrapping 2 cakes each we really got to experience how naturally simple the whole process is compared to other types of tea which are fried, rolled and processed substantially more. The only downside I see to puer cakes is the lengthy aging process which is necessary for the deep rich taste to develop.

From this small tea factory we traveled DaDuGang, the owner of the largest tea plantation in Asia. Terraced fields of 30yr old tea bushes could be seen in all directions and the view was breathtaking.  In stark contrast to the small factory we’d seen earlier in the day, the DaDuGang factory was filled with massive processing equipment, primarily for green though they make 107 different varieties, which had a very industrial feeling to it. We had some tea with the owners of DaDuGang while Austin had a long discussion about policies and international tea trade.

Transfer back to Puer City in the late afternoon.

Drive to Mengsong Mountain and visit the ancient tea trees;

Drive to Menghai County, visit Nannuo Mountain Tea Plantation and Yunnan Tea Research Institute. Nanuo is one of six tea Mountains, the origin of tea of the world; today we will visit a tea plantation with history of over 600 years old.

At Yunnan Tea Research Institute, we will be given a lecture on Yunnan minority tea culture while enjoy the tea performance of courses of Flaming Tea from Ai’Ni ethnic minority, cool mixed tea of Jinou, Earth-pot tea of La’hu and so on.

Visit Jinzheng Octagonal Pavilion, and then drive to Lancang Lahu Autonomous County. Transfer to Huimin Town which is 50 kilometers away from Lancang Lahu Autonomous County.

Drive to Jingmai, visit Jingmai and Mangjing Ancient Tea Mountains.

The Jingmai Mangjing Ancient Tea Association consists of 209 member households from two administrative villages, namely Jingmai and Mangjing, which are composed of six natural villages. Some of the poorest populations are often ethnic minorities in border regions where the Jingmai Mangjing Ancient Tea Association is located.

The popularity of ancient tea among Chinese tea drinkers has rapidly increased in recent years and can be produced in excellent quality from Jingmai and Mangjing’s tea trees. The number of leaves picked from ancient trees is currently 10 times higher than that of the fresh leaves picked from cultivated tea plants.

The Jingmai Mangjing Tea Association makes up most of the Jingmai Ancient Tea garden, which covers an area of 1600 ha, 910 ha of which are organic. The government has declared the Jingmai Ancient Tea Garden an important area for protection and began promoting ecotourism. The government also emphasizes organic management to increase the value of tea products.

After breakfast, drive to Ximeng County; we will the Mengsuo Dragon Pool and the Wa tribal villages. The Wa Tribal people share a special connection to the ancient and wild tea trees. You will see and learn how the Wa Tribal people believe in living in harmony between in nature.

Ximeng and Cangyuan counties are the main places where the Va people live in compact communities. In the areas where the Va people live, there are also Hans, Yis, Dais, Hanis, Lahus, Jingpos, Blangs, De’angs and Lisus.

In the morning,we will visit a special ancient tea group and a wild tea forest on Fodian Mountain which is 8000 feet above the sea level! There are over 12 square kilometers ancient tea trees here making it a special place on earth.

Drive to Shuangjiang after lunch.

After a short drive we will take a light trek to a small village called Bingdao(冰岛) , which is Luhu tribal village surrounded by green mountains and is the origin of the tea plantation in China. We will see several huge ancient tea trees over 2000 years old! We will have a chance to see this rare, unique village of the Lahu people. They are known to wear colorful, traditional clothes.

After we will have a scrumptious local lunch.Drive to Lincang City in the late afternoon;

Optional trekking tour (7hours):

In the afternoon we will make it to the Mengku Daxueshan Virgin Forest home to the 10, 000 Acre Wild Ancient Tea Tree Garden. The forest has a total area of 12,000 acres and a history of more than 2,500 years. It is home to over 80, 000 ancient, wild tea trees. It has the largest, oldest and highest tea trees in the world.

Visit Lincang Tea Culture and Customs Garden and Lincang tea factories; Lying in the suburb of the Lin Xiang District, the 110 hectare scenic zone is one of the 25 most heated attractions of Yunnan Province. Here we will get to wander through this giant tea garden as well as learn deeper of the Chinese Yunnan tea culture.

After we will see the Lincang tea factories for lessons in Lincang’s Puer. What makes Lincang Puer different and unique to the other regions of Yunnan. Drive to Fengqing County in the afternoon.

After a hearty breakfast we will tour the famous Dianhong Black Tea factory. They have teas that are honey and chocolate like tasting that will make your mouth water for more. We will see hands on their processing methods and learn what makes this black tea so tasty and unique. They have over 200 varieties of black tea!

Drive to Manwan Town in the afternoon; Pay a visit to the Manwan Hydropower Station located in the upper Mekong River between Wuliang Mountain and Yunxian County.

Wuliang Mountain Ancient Tree Study and Trek

We will be doing some light trekking in the mountains to see the ancient tea trees growing in Wuliang Mountain and the surrounding mountains. Bring your camera for reference photos when you go home. We will study leaf identification methods, soil as well as how to distinguish ancient trees from common ones.  Afterwards we will go back to a tea house that has all certified organic ancient and wild teas for a taste test and a taste study of how to judge different Puers. Afterwards we will have a delicious banquet feast of local dishes.

From Dali we will be whisked away to a rare one of a kind Ecological tea factory nestled in the mountains. Here you will see first hand what exactly an eco tea factory is and what differentiates it from the other common tea factories around China. We will learn first hand their methods of processing down to their efforts to protect and co-exist with the environment to create a tea line that is beyond Fair Trade.

Visit Three Pagodas, Erhai Lake Cruise, Dali Ancient City Wall.

Transfer back to Kunming and catch the flight back for returning.

Service ends.