老青茶三季采摘
May 10 – Oct 10
Head, second, and third harvests (头茶、二茶、三茶) of mature shoots and stems for Laoqingcha (Qingzhuan raw material).
赤壁
Chibi
County-level city in southern Hubei including the historical towns of Yangloudong and Zhaoliqiao, centre of Qingzhuan dark brick tea and Mizhuan compressed black brick tea.
- Level
- County
- Within
- Hubei
At a glance#
Location
- Garden elevation
- Low hills around Yangloudong and Zhaoliqiao on the northern foothills of the Mufu Mountains (50–550 m).
Where it lies#
Tea places nearby, plotted by their coordinates. Only physical positions are shown, no boundaries.
55 places shown Across the view · 575 km
22 places shown Across the view · 195 km
Altitude#
Garden elevations here and in neighbouring places, as sourced.
Picking calendar#
Terroir#
- Rock
- Karst limestone and red-bed sandstone along the Mufu Mountain northern piedmont, fed by mineral-rich松峰山 (Songfeng) springs.
- Soil
- Deep acidic red soil (红壤) and yellow-red clay loam, pH 4.5–5.5.
- Slope and light
- Warm, humid southern Hubei summers sustain vigorous multi-flush shoot growth and support long-cycle indoor pile-fermentation (渥堆) for Qingzhuan dark bricks.
Cultivation#
Local words#
| Local words | Dialect | |
|---|---|---|
| 帽盒茶 Pinyin: màohéchá | Gan-Chutai (Puqi / Chibi) | Historical Yangloudong vernacular name meaning hat-box tea, referring to the dome-shaped bamboo baskets in which fermented dark tea was compacted before flat brick pressing became standard. |
People#
- Yangloudong brick-tea guild masters and Shanxi-Hubei merchant factors 羊楼洞砖茶作坊匠人与晋鄂茶商
- Merchant guilds from Shanxi, Guangdong, and Russia partnered with local Yangloudong fermenters and pressmen to turn southern Hubei into a major Eurasian brick-tea manufacturing hub.
Market#
- Primary trade channel
- Base dark and black teas from southern Hubei mountain counties are fermented, blended, and steam-pressed at Zhaoliqiao and Yangloudong factories for shipment to Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Eurasian export markets.
- Trading towns
- Zhaoliqiao · Yangloudong · Chibi
- Output
- Chibi's historic brick-tea factories in Yangloudong and Zhaoliqiao process aged pile-fermented dark leaf into Qingzhuan bricks and broken black tea into steam-pressed Mizhuan bricks.
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Prices differentiate multi-year warehouse-aged face-tea (samian) Qingzhuan bricks and fine-screened Mizhuan bricks from standard pastoral-market border bricks.
History#
- 1796Yangloudong merchants compress cylinder-hat tea (帽盒茶) into rectangular bricks for the Shanxi camel caravan trade.
- 1861Russian firms (such as Litvinov / 顺丰砖茶厂) introduce steam-boiler hydraulic brick presses in Yangloudong for Mizhuan and Qingzhuan.
- 1953State-run Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory consolidates historic Yangloudong workshops along the Beijing–Guangzhou railway.
Notes#
Identity and history#
Located along the southern bank of the middle Yangtze at the northern foot of the Mufu Mountains in southern Hubei, Chibi encompasses the historic tea-road towns of Yangloudong and Zhaoliqiao. Beginning in the Ming and Qing eras and expanding with nineteenth-century Eurasian caravan commerce, merchant houses here consolidated coarse green sun-dried leaves from surrounding counties for extended pile-fermentation and heavy steam compression into Qingzhuan dark bricks, alongside finely comminuted black-tea dust pressed into ornate Mizhuan bricks. Contemporary geographical-indication standards regulate raw-leaf aging, microbial heap fermentation, and hydraulic brick molding.
Teas associated with this place#
青砖茶
Qingzhuan tea Qīngzhuān chá
Compressed dark tea associated with Hubei, including the brick-tea traditions of Chibi and Yichang.
reviewed
米砖茶
Mizhuan tea Mǐzhuān Chá
Compressed black tea made from small black-tea leaf fragments, strongly associated with Hubei’s Yangloudong and Zhaoliqiao traditions. Its brick form does not make it a dark tea.
reviewed
Sources#
- 陈宗懋、杨亚军主编. 中国茶经 (2011修订版) (The Classic of Chinese Tea, 2011 rev. ed.). 上海文化出版社, 2011. ISBN 978-7-80740-664-8.