春茶
Mar 18 – May 5
Early spring harvest for Sanxia Longjing and Yuan'an Luyuan; April–May harvest for Yihong Gongfu.
宜昌
Yichang
Prefecture at the eastern outlet of the Three Gorges in western Hubei, core production and refining hub for Yihong Gongfu black tea.
- Level
- Prefecture
- Within
- Hubei
At a glance#
Location
- Garden elevation
- Three Gorges terraces in Yiling/Zigui and mountain gardens in Wufeng, Changyang, and Yuan'an (200–1,100 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 · 297 km
Altitude#
Garden elevations here and in neighbouring places, as sourced.
Picking calendar#
Terroir#
- Rock
- Pre-Sinian granite at the Huangling anticline alongside limestone and red sandstone in the Three Gorges and Wuling valleys.
- Soil
- Acidic yellow-brown and granite-grit sandy loams (黄棕壤、花岗岩风化砂壤), pH 4.5–5.8.
- Slope and light
- Gorge-warmed winters and misty mountain valleys along the Yangtze and Qingjiang rivers support early spring green/yellow teas and rich Wufeng/Yichang Yihong black teas.
Cultivation#
- Cultivars grown
- Echa 1宜昌大叶茶 (Yichang Daye landrace)鹿苑种 (Luyuan landrace)
- Landraces
- Yichang/Wufeng medium- and large-leaf populations and Yuan'an Luyuan local landrace.
- Practice
- Refined strip-style black tea manufacture for Yihong Gongfu; wet-blanket yellowing (湿布包黄) for Yuan'an Luyuan yellow tea.
Local words#
| Local words | Dialect | |
|---|---|---|
| 宜红 Pinyin: yíhóng | Southwestern Mandarin (Yichang) | Trade contraction combining Yichang with red tea, adopted by Three Gorges river ports and Hankou merchant guilds for western Hubei gongfu black tea. |
People#
- Three Gorges Tujia and Han upland growers and river-port refiners 宜昌三峡土家族、汉族茶农与宜红精制茶师
- Upland farmers in Wufeng and Changyang supplied tender spring leaves to Yichang river-port workshops where master graders refined Yihong Gongfu black tea for international export.
Market#
- Primary trade channel
- Primary black leaf from upland townships in Wufeng and Yidu is consolidated and refined in Yichang port and county factories for Yangtze river trade and international export.
- Trading towns
- Yichang · Wufeng · Yidu
- Output
- Situated at the Three Gorges outlet, Yichang serves as the refining and export hub for Yihong Gongfu black tea drawn from mountain counties including Wufeng, Changyang, Yidu, and Zigui.
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Spring bud-rich raw black tea (maohongcha) from high-elevation Wufeng and Three Gorges gardens refined into top-grade tight-strip Yihong Gongfu commands the highest prices.
History#
- 1200Luyuan Temple in Yuan'an establishes monastic yellow-tea cultivation in the鹿溪 (Luxi) valley.
- 1855Guangdong merchants travel up the Yangtze to Yichang and Wufeng to establish red-tea workshops, founding Yihong Gongfu.
Notes#
Identity and history#
Commanding the eastern gateway of the Three Gorges where the Yangtze emerges from the Wuling and Daba mountains into the Jianghan Plain, Yichang features steep canyon microclimates and mild winters. Since the nineteenth century, the prefecture—spanning Wufeng, Changyang, and Yidu—has served as the core growing and refining zone for Yihong Gongfu, one of China's three classic export gongfu black teas. Protected regional standards govern the selection of local medium-leaf cultivars, indoor trough withering, rolling, fermentation, and multi-sieve fractional grading into tight, wiry, golden-tipped strips.