早春秀芽
Feb 20 – Apr 10
Early spring harvest for Yongchuan Xiuya and Sanxia Longjing.
重庆重慶
Chongqing
Upper Yangtze municipality in southwestern China; its Yunwushan range in Yongchuan District is the protected origin of needle-shaped Yongchuan Xiuya green tea.
- Level
- Province
At a glance#
Location
- Garden elevation
- Parallel ridge-and-valley mountains (箕山, 巴岳山, 云雾山) in Yongchuan and the Three Gorges库区.
Where it lies#
Tea places nearby, plotted by their coordinates. Only physical positions are shown, no boundaries.
1512 places shown Across the view · 1,760 km
33 places shown Across the view · 672 km
Altitude#
Garden elevations here and in neighbouring places, as sourced.
Picking calendar#
Terroir#
- Rock
- Folded anticlinal ridges of Jurassic sandstone and Triassic limestone across the eastern Sichuan Basin.
- Soil
- Acidic mountain yellow earth (山地黄壤) and purple-yellow loams, pH 4.5–5.5.
- Slope and light
- Warm, humid upper-Yangtze valley winters and early spring warming produce some of China's earliest needle-shaped spring green teas.
Cultivation#
- Cultivars grown
- 早白尖5号 (Zaobaijian 5)Fuding Dabai巴渝特早 (Bayu Tezao)
- Landraces
- Sichuan–Chongqing early-sprouting small- and medium-leaf populations (早白尖群体种).
- Practice
- Early-spring single-bud and one-bud-one-leaf plucking on parallel forested mountain ridges in Yongchuan.
Local words#
| Local words | Dialect | |
|---|---|---|
| 秀芽 Xiùyá | Southwestern Mandarin (Chongqing / Yongchuan) | slender, graceful spring tea buds Used across Yongchuan's Yunwushan, Yinshan, and Bayueshan ranges for straight, tightly rolled needle-shaped early-spring green tea. |
People#
- Yongchuan Yunwushan tea growers and researchers 永川云雾山茶农与茶叶科技人员
- Smallholders and tea breeding researchers in Yongchuan District who developed the needle-shaped Yongchuan Xiuya craft in 1959 and propagated local fine-leaf cultivars such as Zaobaijian.
Market#
- Primary trade channel
- Fresh shoots are processed by Yongchuan ridge-top tea farms and municipal tea companies and distributed primarily to Chongqing and Sichuan specialty green-tea markets.
- Trading towns
- Yongchuan · Chongqing
- Output
- Production is concentrated on the parallel mountain ridges of Yongchuan District (Yunwushan, Yinshan, Bayueshan, Jishan, and Huangguashan), weighted heavily toward early-spring needle green tea.
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Prices peak for early-spring one-bud-one-leaf shoots from clonal Zaobaijian and Shuyong cultivars grown in the protected Yunwushan ridges.
History#
- 1959Chongqing Tea Experimental Station in Yongchuan develops the needle-shaped green tea named Yongchuan Xiuya.
- 2006Yongchuan Xiuya approved as a national Geographical Indication product.
Notes#
Identity and history#
Carved by the upper Yangtze, Jialing, and Wu rivers across parallel fold mountains in the eastern Sichuan Basin, Chongqing sustains a humid, fog-wrapped subtropics ideal for early-flushing tea bushes. Its flagship protected zone in the Yunwushan range of Yongchuan District specializes in tightly rolled, needle-straight Yongchuan Xiuya green tea made from selected early-budding cultivars. Municipal and national geographical-indication rules specify elevation bands, fresh-leaf tenderness grades, and combined steam-or-pan fixation protocols.
Teas associated with this place#
Sources#
- 中国茶树品种志 (2001)
- 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.