春茶
Feb 1 – Apr 30
Youle farmers pick spring and autumn, or spring only, unlike the usual three-season scheme; months given are the paper's standard spring window (inference for Youle).
攸乐攸樂
Youle
Jinuo Mountain in Jinghong, first-named of the Qing six mountains and the only one outside Mengla; Youle village holds its largest old garden.
- Level
- Mountain
- Within
- Yunnan › Xishuangbanna › Jinghong
At a glance#
- Output
- Youle old garden about 70 t a year; whole township 1,602 t from 28,375 mu (city 2023 figures cited in the study).
Where it lies#
Tea places nearby, plotted by their coordinates. Only physical positions are shown, no boundaries.
2512 places shown Across the view · 909 km
109 places shown Across the view · 135 km
Picking calendar#
秋茶
Aug 1 – Oct 31
Standard autumn window per the paper; some households skip it.
Terroir#
- Soil
- Lateritic red soil (赤红壤) developed on purple sedimentary sandstone under monsoon forest; acidic, pH 4.3–5.2, deep and fertile.
- Slope and light
- Tropical monsoon climate with fog; township 2023 mean temperatures 15–25 °C, about 1,966 hours of sun; the paper gives rainfall as about 800–1,200 mm, which is low for the area (a tea-site feature gives ~1,400 mm and 18–20 °C), so no figure is charted. Over 65% of Youle village is above 1,000 m and most slopes are under 25°.
Cultivation#
- Cultivars grown
- Youle large-leaf (攸乐大叶种)
- Landraces
- Youle large-leaf with naturally crossed populations: long and oval leaf forms, red-stem and green-stem types.
- Plant age
- Mostly 200–300 years.
- Practice
- Trees climbed by hand; one bud and two or three leaves; skilled pickers gather 5–6 kg fresh leaf a day. Traditional sun-dried maocha (spread, pan-fire, roll, sun-dry). Village rules ban felling and over-picking, with patrols against outside leaf being brought in.
Local words#
| Local words | Dialect | |
|---|---|---|
| 攸乐 | Jinuo | Former name of the people and mountain, glossed as 'the people who respect the maternal uncle'. |
People#
- Jinuo 基诺族
- 26,025 people in 2020; recognised in 1979 as China's 56th ethnic group; called 攸乐人 in Qing records. Tibeto-Burman (Yi branch) language with no traditional script.
Market#
- Trading towns
- Jinghong
- Output
- Youle old garden about 70 t a year; whole township 1,602 t from 28,375 mu (city 2023 figures cited in the study).
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Per the 2025 study, organized branding ('基诺攸乐' trademark, cooperatives) raised organic leaf from 20–30 to 200–300 yuan/kg, with old-tree tea at 1,200–4,000 yuan/kg.
Misnaming to watch for: Sometimes sold as part of 'Greater Yiwu', which it is not; the study also warns of ordinary tea sold under 'century-old tree' labels.
History#
- 1729Qing establishes the Youle sub-prefect (攸乐同知) and a 500-man brick fort, later abandoned because of malaria.
- 1979-06Jinuo officially recognised as an ethnic group.
- 19801980s: Jinuo township begins reviving its damaged tea gardens.
Other names and written forms 6#
Chinese variants
- 攸乐山Youle — mountain
- 基诺山Jinuo — mountain
- 基諾山Jinuo Mountain
Translations and trade names
- Jinuo Mountain
- Jinuoshan
- Jino Mountain
Names and ambiguities#
Notes#
Youle is the old name of Jinuo Mountain (基诺山), today Jinuoshan Jinuo Ethnic Township (623 km², about 13,100 people) in north-eastern Jinghong, about 27 km from the city. Tan Cui's list names it first of the six mountains. The Qing posted a Youle sub-prefect (攸乐同知) and a garrison there in 1729, later abandoned for malaria. Youle village (攸乐村) has the largest, best-kept old garden: 2,745 mu of tea, of which about 120 ha (1,800 mu) is old garden yielding about 70 t a year; trees are mostly 200–300 years old, 2–3 m tall, about 100 per mu, of the Youle large-leaf type with long and oval leaf forms. The township as a whole has 28,375 mu of tea and 1,602 t output. Soils are acidic lateritic red soils (pH 4.3–5.2) on purple sedimentary sandstone; over 65% of Youle village lies above 1,000 m. Gardens were damaged by war and land clearance and revived from the 1980s. Jinuo tea culture includes the 'cold-dressed' fresh-leaf salad 凉拌茶.