Duyun Maojian Tea Mountains 都匀毛尖茶山

About Duyun Maojian Tea Mountains

Duyun Maojian tea is grown at 1,400 to 1,600 metres elevation, chiefly around Tuanshan, Shaojiao and Dacao. The tea was formerly called yugou cha, fish-hook tea, a name the People's Daily Overseas Edition report traces, citing historical records, to the Ming Chongzhen emperor, who on tasting Duyun's tribute tea saw that its shape resembled a fish hook and bestowed the name on it. In April 1956, tea farmers from a cooperative in Tuanshan township sent Mao Zedong three jin of it. The Party Central Committee's general office wrote back enclosing payment, and beneath the typed letter Mao added in his own hand that the tea was good, that more should be planted on the hillsides, and that it could be called maojian cha; the episode is credited locally with the tea's present name and its rise to wider fame. Baimang township, 33 kilometres west of Duyun, is one of the tea's places of origin, and its party committee secretary Li Yongpei is quoted in the same report saying that Duyun Maojian's becoming a famous Chinese tea has a great deal to do with Gaozhai reservoir; the report itself, which calls the 1970s artificial lake the highest-elevation reservoir in Duyun city, says its completion effectively regulated the climate of the tea mountain.

The 2025 Duyun Maojian spring-tea picking ceremony was held on 22 March at Pingyang village in Maojian town, on the Luosike tea mountain, opening that year's formal picking of the spring crop. Villagers in festival dress marked the day with song and dance, and the ceremony grounds carried a display area for the tea's intangible-heritage making craft, where practised hands worked fresh leaf through the wok-firing, rolling, kneading and tip-raising steps. The Luosike range stands over 1,700 metres, is cloud-covered through the year and carries dense scrub woodland, and is described as the crop's core origin area.

What to look for

• The Luosike tea mountain itself, a 1,738-metre peak carrying the 'hundred-li Maojian corridor' of tea gardens.
• Pingyang village in Maojian town, on the Luosike tea mountain, where the 2025 Duyun Maojian spring-tea picking ceremony was held on 22 March.
• Demonstrations of the intangible-heritage tea-processing craft: wok-firing, rolling, kneading and tip-raising by hand.
• Gaozhai reservoir, an artificial lake completed in the 1970s that the People's Daily Overseas Edition report calls the highest-elevation reservoir in Duyun city.

Location & getting there

Getting to Duyun Maojian Tea Mountains

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

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