9-day Yunnan Dianhong Red Tea & Pu'er Tea Tour

Upon arrival in Lincang, your tour guide and driver will meet you and escort you to the hotel in Fengqing County for a rest. Then you can have a free leisure around the city for the rest of the day.

After breakfast, you will pay a visit to Dianhong Group,  Dianhong Ecological Tea Garden in Fengqing County. Then take the flight in the late afternoo from Lincang to Jinghong Xishuangbanna.

A morning drive to Nannuo Tea Mountain, well known for a cultivated ancient tea tree king. The king tea tree with a trunk diameter of 1.38 meters at tree age of over 800 years. Since ancient times, Nannuo has been the most famous ancient tea mountain on the west bank at the lower reaches of the Lancang River, and an important raw material source for high-quality Pu'er tea.

In the Nanzhao period, the ancestors of Bulang people moved out of Nannuo Mountain and left the tea gardens to Aini people. And since then Aini people have lived on and engaged in tea-planting here Nannuo Tea Mountain and more than 1000 years. Visit Aini village and taste roasted tea prepared in unique way, through chatting we may discover how much Aini people rely on tea.

Move on to Menghai, pay visit to small tea workshop in the village to learn how to process fresh tea leaves. Further transfer into mountainous area to Bada, do some hiking across forest to worship the King of Wild Tea Tree aged over 1700 years. In late afternoon drive back to Menghai for overnight stay.

After breakfast, you will drive to Jingmai Mountain where the ancient tea plantation was cultivated by the ancestor of Bulang minority over 800 years ago. They were the earliest ethnic group who began to domesticate wild tea plant for drinking in Yunnan. On the mounatin,  thousands of aged tea trees in wildness are still growing well under natural condition without farmer's care. The tree output is low, but it is very organic and of  high quality. In the afternoon long drive to Shangyun via Lancang. Stay at simple local hotel or guesthouse in Shangyun overnight.

Morning drive up mountain to Banwei, a small village on hillside at an elevation of around 1900 meters, we will see a tea tree aged over 1000 years here, a breed type of tea tree between wild and cultivated, different from the King of Wild Tea Tree and 800-year-old tea trees in ancient plantation. It offered a very important evidence that local ethnic groups tried to plant wild tea for drinking as early as 1000 years ago. In the afternoon transfer back to Lancang, en route if have more time, do some random stops for visiting ethnic villages. Stay in Lancang.

Move to Pu'er along mountainous road and across the up reach of River Mekong. After arrival in the afternoon, drive to see the ancient tea caravan way still winding on ridges of mountains.  There old local family hostel for tea transporting caravans stands by the paving stones and tells the past prosperity of tea trade.  Proceed to Ninger, a small town after which famous Pu'er Tea was named, it once was the tea distribution center of South Yunnan. Return Pu'er for overnight stay.

Visit Tea Culture Park near Pu'er, see how to tea process and taste Pu'er Tea.  Pu'er Tea is actually a kind of slightly fermented green tea and can be stored at certain term for normally 7-8 years. Moreover, fermentation makes it taste milder and softer and be well accepted by most of people. Later get on the way back to Jingong. Stop en route to enjoy view of vast tea plantation near Dadugan, another famous tea producing area. In addition drop in Wild Elephant Valley, take cable lift above jungle for forest view and some relaxation. Stay in Jinghong.

After breakfast, you will take a morning drive to Yiwu, a small town witnessed the rise and fall of tea trade in the history, see the old part of town and the stele erected in Qing Dynasty that recorded the trade situation at that time, pay visit to local families that are still producing Pu'er Tea in the traditional way. Visit the Yiwu Mountain Tea Plantation and Puer tea factory.  Stay in Yiwu Town.

After breakfast you will enjoy morning fresh walk at the botanical garden. Then drive to Youle Tea Mountain, the settlement of the Jinuo people (the last ethnic nationality classified by Chinese Government in 1979). The Jinuo people, was called Youle people in the past, who started tea plantation along the two sides of Buyuan River more than a thousand years ago. The area of tea plantation was up to at least 4,000 mu In the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Nowaday ancient tea gardens over 2,000 mu has most anicent tea trees with a trunk over 100 cm around Longpa Village and Balai Village.  The merchants entered the Youleshan for tea trade from the Han Dynasty.

In the afternoon,  continue to drive back to Jinghong for your flight to your next destination.