Winter Tour: Yunnan

Xishuangbanna

We welcome our guests to our place, in Xishuangbanna valley, for a comfortable rest with tea, seasonal fruit and food to recover from the fatigue of your travel. We regroup in a villa next to our studio, that will be your base for the whole duration of our trip in the lands we love so much.

Nannuo forest

We wake up surrounded by the pu’er tea mountains, and we begin our itinerary by heading towards Mount Nannuo: we pay homage to the oldest 800 years old tree, and immerse ourselves in the forest of Eastern Leaves. If the weather is favorable we will climb until the Eastern Leaves forest, brewing tea among its trees.

Menghai

Menghai is the center of the most renowned - and busiest - area for the production of pu'er tea: it is surrounded by the Bulang area with Laobanzhang and Laoman'e, Pasha, Nannuo, Naka and many others, and brings together all the best professionals and factories. We visit a pu'er tea refining plant and explore the local economy by dedicating our day to the best tasting of different teas: shupu with a master of his craft and rare shengpu from selected areas.

Xishuangbanna and Pasha mtn.

We start our day on the outskirts of the city north of the Mekong River to visit Mrs. Zhang Laoshi's traditional Dai pottery workshop, which represents her ethnic tradition of pottery working with three different kilns: gas, wood and dragon.
Next we head to Mt. Pasha, one of the famous old six, to stroll among its ancient trees, learning about its cultivar, and of course, to savor its fragrances and aromas.

On the way to Kunming

In the morning we taste new teas and we review the tastes acquired in the previous days, before getting on our way to Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan, placed at 2.100 meters of altitude between the tropical south and the Himalayan north.
It is located three and a half hours by train from Xishuangbanna; we arrive in early evening, on time to climatized ourself with its clear air and lakes.

Kunming

We cross the Cuihu lake toward the old city, where we meet one of the most important figures for the contemporary pu'er tea history: Mr. Hu, that in 2005 walked with a caravan of 120 horses laden with pu'er tea from the town of Pu'er in southwest Yunnan to Beijing - about 3000km to the northeast.
In the pu'er tea industry there is a before and after his project; we will be able to talk about it with him, tasting the original 2005 teas from the caravan.
In the afternoon we spend our time with Zhou Chonglin, one of the greatest pu'er tea expert and tea-book publisher.
We meet him immersed in his tea-books, and we will listen to his thoughts on the current evolution of the industry.

Kunming

We further immerse ourselves in the contemporary pu'er tea culture with two figures that are undiscussed protagonists of its recent history: in the morning we meet with Hai Bo, that in his beautiful studio will talk about Lincang area and teas.
It has a long history that continued during the New China time, deeply influencing the contemporary reality of pu'er tea
In the afternoon we focus on pu'er tea brewing, using different vessels and materials.

Xishuangbanna

In the morning we travel back from Kunming to our southern base, in Xishaungbanna.
After a lunch and some tea, in the afternoon we visit a lush tropical garden surrounded by forest, which houses the ceramic workshop of an innovative master we love: Qiu Laoshi and his creations.
His work is deeply rooted in his territory: he uses only local sands and plant-based ashes for his glazes, and each of his production-season has a different hue.

Yiwu

We travel in south-east direction, toward the Laos border: the destination of our travel are the peaks of Yiwu, home to a wide variety of tastes, landscape, and producers.
Our first stop will be the town of Yiwu, at the first stop of the tea-horse road: we visit the most historical houses and lanes, the square where the pu'er tea was exchanged and loaded for centuries, and the local museum.