Basic Introduction to Lushan He Hongcha
He Hongcha is a traditional Chinese famous tea, created by Chinese tea farmers during the Ming Dynasty. As a black tea produced in He town, Lushan County, Jiangxi Province, it has been favored by people around the world since its inception. Merchants from all over China came to place orders, and merchants from Russia, Britain, India, and other countries also traveled long distances to He town for trade. He Hongcha became the most famous black tea in China and the “first Chinese tea to be exported,” revered as the “Queen of Teas” by Westerners.
He Hongcha was the first Chinese tea to be exported to the West. The high-quality He Hongcha ‘Zhengshan Xiaozhong' is a traditional drink of the British royal family. The origin of ‘Zhengshan Xiaozhong' is in Lushan. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, masters of He Hongcha production from Lushan were spread throughout the country's black tea production areas. It is imperative to collect and organize this knowledge promptly so that the techniques of making He Hongcha can be passed down, and its charm can last!
He Hongcha was once a calling card for China on the world stage. However, in the past four decades, it has almost been forgotten. In recent years, some cultural figures have campaigned tirelessly for this cultural tea, leading to its protection. The cultural department of Yanshan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, is applying for the He Hongcha production technique to be listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. People in Lushan are working hard to resume the production of He Hongcha and make it famous worldwide once again.
The original birthplace of He Hongcha is Fozhai Village, Tianzhushan Town, He town, Lushan County, Jiangxi Province. Lushan County is located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, with the Wuyi Mountains running along the border with Fujian Province to the south. The topography of the entire county is characterized as “seven parts mountain, half part water, half part field, and one part road and estate.” Lushan is in the subtropical zone, with a mild climate and an average temperature of 8.7-17.9°C; abundant rainfall, with annual precipitation of 1733-2000 millimeters; moderate sunlight, and slightly acidic fertile soil in the valleys, which has made it a place rich in tea production since ancient times. The original birthplace of He Hongcha, Fozhai Village in Tianzhushan, has an altitude range of 1200-1500 meters. Fozhai means a place where immortals live, with green mountains undulating northward, misty clouds, and smooth peaks. The He Hongcha tea gardens are cultivated here.
Geographical Scope
Lushan County is located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, with the Wuyi Mountains forming its southern boundary with Fujian Province, and the highest peak in East China, Huanggang Mountain, crossing through it. To the north lies the Xin River, and Zhejiang Province is to the east. The geographical protection area for Lushan He Hongcha includes Tianzhushan Township, Huangbi Township, Taoyuan Township, Hufang Town, Gexianshan Township, Yingjiang Township, and Wuyishan Town, a total of seven towns (townships). The protected area is located between 117°44′03″E and 117°70′41″E, and 27°48′19″N and 28°31′77″N. The protected area covers 1200 hectares, with an annual output of 270 tons.
Product Characteristics
The He Hongcha tea gardens are located in a typical high (deep) mountain environment, at elevations ranging from 900 to 1300 meters. The unique high-altitude temperature, humidity, light, and soil conditions are very suitable for tea tree growth, allowing for the accumulation of rich inner contents in the tea leaves. Particularly, amino acids, aromatic substances, and other nutritional components are abundant, giving He Hongcha its fresh and refreshing taste and its high and lasting aroma. The development of old-growth He Hongcha products using fresh leaves from high-altitude old-growth trees is a first in China.
The He Hongcha tea gardens are absolutely free of any pesticides and fertilizers, and no tea is procured from any other sources. Strict control over the production process ensures that the tea is green and pollution-free. According to tests conducted by the National Quality Inspection Center, the 13 pesticide residue indicators for He Hongcha were not just below national standards but were all “0.”
Historical Folklore
The book “Lushan: Book of Food and Goods” records: “In Lushan, wherever there are stone mountains with soil, mountains on both banks, sunny banks, or shady ravines, tea plants are planted. … Since the Song Dynasty, there has been Zhou Mountain tea, white water tuan tea, small dragon phoenix tuan tea, all used to complement Jian'an tea and presented as tribute.”
Since the Ming Dynasty's Jiajing period, “He town gradually became the center of inland water transport in the south and a large market for the processing and trading of tea and paper” (from “The General History of China”). Thus, He Hongcha joined the ranks of major commodities traded nationally and internationally.
According to the Wanli edition of the “Xinzhou Prefecture Annals,” “He Hongcha is the most famous black tea in the country and the first Chinese tea to appear in the world.”
Tea is the national drink of the Chinese nation and the king of beverages in the world. The messenger that brought Chinese tea to the world was He Hongcha. The historical commercial prosperity of He town was inseparable from the prosperity of He Hongcha. Tea production is a traditional industry in Lushan, and teas like Zhou Mountain tea, white water tuan tea, and small dragon phoenix tuan tea from Lushan were tributes during the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, when Qing Li Dagang served as the magistrate of Lushan, he further promoted the tea-growing industry, “In Lushan, wherever there are stone mountains with soil, mountains on both banks, sunny banks, or shady ravines, tea plants are planted.” (from “Lushan Records” of the Ming Dynasty). The county had more than 200,000 mu of tea plantations and introduced a series of famous teas to the market, among which He Hongcha was the most popular.
He Hongcha became the most famous black tea in the country and the “first Chinese tea to appear in the world” (see “Shangrao Region Annals”), “During the heyday of He Hongcha, merchants spent millions of taels of silver annually” (from “Lushan Local Annals” of the Ming Dynasty). He town became the center of the Chinese black tea trade and the technical center for producing He Hongcha. At that time, 30,000 people in He town were engaged in the processing of black tea. In the Qing Dynasty, Cheng Hongyi described in his “He Town Bamboo Branch Poems”: “Women in Shijiang take advantage of new tea, their hair shadows and clothes fragrant, laughing and talking. They all ask the tea merchants for small tickets, carefully picking the tender shoots of the frozen thunder tea.” On the streets of He town, tea warehouses and shops lined up like fish scales, “carriages and boats transport various goods, and tea and paper attract merchants” (from Jiang Shiquan's “He Town”). Ten docks on the riverbank were piled high with tea chests and baskets, and the porters were drenched in sweat, busy without a break. The former glory of He Hongcha is the sense of mission that Cheng Zhuqing spoke of.
However, in modern times, He Hongcha began to decline. After liberation, in order to revitalize the tea industry in Lushan, Lushan County established the state-owned He Town Tea Farm west of the city in 1956. This was the earliest state-owned tea farm in our province, with 3,700 mu of tea gardens opened up and production of over 3,000 piculs of He Hongcha. It also resumed tea exports to Japan, Singapore, Europe, America, Hong Kong, and other places. In 1958, the former farm manager Jin Erzhen attended the Thousand Heroes Assembly held in Beijing and received a certificate of merit awarded by Premier Zhou Enlai on behalf of the State Council. However, by