春茶
Vendor pressings from April picks (2018, 2020).
贺开賀開
Hekai
Lahu tea villages in Menghun town with about 16,000 mu of old trees, billed as China's largest contiguous ancient tea garden; on the road from Menghai to Lao Banzhang.
- Level
- Mountainadministrative village (贺开村委会, Menghun town 勐混镇)
- Within
- Yunnan › Xishuangbanna › Menghai
At a glance#
- Output
- Dried maocha of the whole Hekai village committee (old and terrace tea), 731.4 t, on a 2017 county page (data year inference: 2016).
Where it lies#
Tea places nearby, plotted by their coordinates. Only physical positions are shown, no boundaries.
107 places shown Across the view · 104 km
54 places shown Across the view · 47 km
Altitude#
Garden elevations here and in neighbouring places, as sourced.
Picking calendar#
Terroir#
- Slope and light
- Old trees grow around the wooden Lahu houses and merge into forest; mist is described as year-round. Guanggang (lower, Hani) 1,579 mm.
Cultivation#
- Cultivars grown
- Yunnan large-leaf
- Plant age
- Most old trees said to be about 800 years (local claim); 16,000 of the committee's 30,826 mu of tea are ancient gardens (about 52%, inference). Vendors also sell 40–60-year and 100+-year tree lots.
- Practice
- Average bud-and-three-leaves 5.6 cm long. A 100-mu old-tree protection demonstration garden (20 households) was set up at Manlong Laozhai in 2017; the county's tree-rescue team pruned and fed 10 damaged old trees here in 2020.
Local words#
People#
- Lahu 拉祜族
- 494 households / 2,289 people in 2010; over 2,600 Lahu in the six tea villages (2017).
- Dai 傣族
- Two lower villages (曼贺勐, 曼贺纳) at about 1,200 m.
- Hani 哈尼族
- Guanggang (广冈) village, with about 2,000 mu of old trees.
Market#
- Output
- Dried maocha of the whole Hekai village committee (old and terrace tea), 731.4 t, on a 2017 county page (data year inference: 2016).
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Kunming spring-price release, 23 April 2020: old-tree 1,600–2,500 yuan (the release prints only '元'; per kg as for the other entries).
History#
- 1960From the 1960s Lahu growers adopt managed cultivation under the Yunnan Tea Research Institute (decade only).
- 2017100-mu ancient tea protection demonstration garden set up at Manlong Laozhai.
- 2020County ancient-tree rescue team treats 10 damaged trees in the Hekai garden.
Other names and written forms 4#
Chinese variants
- 贺开古茶山Hekai — ancient tea mountain
- 曼弄 / 曼竜(Manlong)Core Lahu villages Manlong Laozhai and Xinzhai; en Wikipedia lists Hekai and Manlong as terroirs.
Romanisations
- He Kai
Translations and trade names
- Hekai ancient tea mountain
Names and ambiguities#
Which villages belong to Hekai
County pages put Bangpen Laozhai/Xinzhai (帮盆) in the Hekai committee (Menghun town); a vendor guide lists Bangpen (邦盆) under north-west Bulang Mountain, and the 2020 price release lists 班盆 separately. OSM puts 邦盆老寨 about 7 km south-east of Manlong. Hekai vs Bulang labelling of Bangpen tea is therefore unstable.
Ancient garden size and 'largest contiguous' claim
Notes#
Hekai village committee (Menghun town) lies about 20 km from the county seat, 8 km from the town, and about 18 km off National Road 214. In 2010 it had 871 households and 4,055 people in nine groups: six Lahu villages (Manmai 曼迈, Manlong Laozhai 曼弄老寨, Manlong Xinzhai, Mannan 曼囡, Bangpen Laozhai 帮盆老寨 and Bangpen Xinzhai) at about 1,750–1,760 m, two Dai villages (Manhemeng, Manhena) and the Hani village Guanggang 广冈 at about 1,200 m.
Its ancient gardens total about 16,000 mu (16,126 mu and 2.62 million old trees on one county page; roughly a quarter of the county's old-tree area): about 11,000 mu around Manmai, Manlong and Mannan, about 4,000 mu around Bangpen and about 2,000 mu at Guanggang. The name is said to be Dai for the head of a river basin. The Lahu have lived here for over 20 generations and grown tea for about 500 years; scientific management began in the 1960s with the provincial tea institute. The local 'tea king', at about 1,600 m where the two Manlong villages meet, is put at over 1,400 years, 3.8 m tall with a 7.3 m crown (local claim).
Villagers hold a spring rite honouring Zhuge Liang as tea ancestor. Vendors treat Hekai as the northern edge of the Bulang tea zone. Coordinates are Manlong Laozhai (OSM).