Zhuge Liang

Mangzhi Ancient Tea Mountain is located in Xiangming Township, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Starting from Xiangming Yi Township, travel more than ten kilometers towards Menglun and then turn towards Anle Village Committee to arrive. According to legend, Mangzhi is where Zhuge Liang buried his copper (‘ma’ in Chinese), hence the name Mangzhi. It was formerly known as Niuguntang and is now under the jurisdiction of Anle Village Committee. Tea plantations have been present on Mangzhi Tea Mountain at least since the Yuan Dynasty. Villages such as Mansai and Sudi at the foot of Mangzhi Mountain have a history of over a thousand years, with ethnic minorities living and cultivating tea there for a millennium. Although not extensive, the quality of tea from Mangzhi Ancient Tea Mountain is high. At its peak, it produced up to ten thousand piculs of tea annually. From the inscription on a stele erected in the eleventh year of the Qianlong era (titled "To Be Permanently Observed"), we can still glimpse the prosperity of the tea mountain at that time. In the early Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Niuguntang Street on Mangzhi Tea Mountain was one of the four major…