Some describe the ancient Xigui Tea garden as “with the snow-capped mountains above and the Lancang River below,” imbued with a touch of martial spirit, which upon closer reflection, accurately captures the essence of Xigui.

This ancient tea garden, occupying a prime mountain location, is the closest to the Lancang River and the lowest in altitude among renowned tea mountains. It's beloved by many tea enthusiasts for its blend of robustness and gentleness.

Tea Mountain Geography

Mountain Name: Xigui. The ancient tea garden is mainly concentrated in Manglu Mountain, covering about 600 mu, with an average of around 40 trees per mu.

Location: The ancient Xigui tea garden on Manglu Mountain is located in the Xigui Village Group of Bangdong Village Committee, eastern Bangdong Township, Linxiang District, Lincang City. It is 12 kilometers from the Bangdong Village Committee and 16 kilometers from the Bangdong Township government.

The ancient tea garden ranges from the Lancang River Gali Ferry Roadside to the east, to the tunnel entrance of the Mojiang-Lincang Expressway to the west, south to the summit of Manglu Mountain, and north to under the Mo-Lin Expressway bridge.

Elevation: 740 to 1,043.4 meters, with the main ancient tea garden situated between 800 and 950 meters. The climate is subtropical monsoon rainforest, with an annual average temperature of 22°C and precipitation of 1,100 millimeters. The dominant tree species is the large dark-leafed Bangdong variety.

Soil Composition: Characteristic red soil typical of the Lancang River valley, slightly acidic.

Etymology of Place Name: “Xigui” is a transliteration of Dai language, meaning “the place for making rope.”

The existence of the Gali Ferry meant that boats and horse caravans traveling along the ancient path required large quantities of rope, making rope-making a significant livelihood for locals in ancient times.

It's often said that “high mountains and mist produce fine tea.” Generally, higher elevations yield better-quality tea. However, elevation isn't everything. Most ancient Pu'er tea gardens are found at altitudes of 1,200 to 2,000 meters, especially 1,700 to 2,000 meters, which is most suitable for cultivated ancient tea trees, producing superior quality tea.

At higher elevations, wild ancient tea trees primarily grow. Xigui is an exception, with Manglu Mountain's elevation ranging from 740 to 1,043.4 meters, where the majority of the ancient tea trees grow at around 800 meters, making it one of the lower-altitude tea mountains in Yunnan.

Despite this low elevation, the quality of the ancient tea garden here is excellent. This has made the Xigui ancient tea tree highly sought after, defying the norm that high mountains and mist produce the best tea. The tea originates from Manglu Mountain.

Manglu Mountain, backed by the Xigui Mountains, is not very large. It is part of the eastern extension of the 3,429-meter-high Mount Bangdong Daxueshan to the Lancang River, with the Gali Ferry at its foot. However, Manglu Mountain is not exclusive to Xigui but shared between the Xigui and Huangtian village groups.

In the collective era, Xigui and Huangtian were part of the same production team, only dividing into two teams in 1978. The Xigui and Huangtian village groups have approximately 160 households and a population of over 500, more than half of whom are of the Dai ethnic group, including surnames such as Dao, Ran, Ruan, and Kong.

According to Dao Zhenghua, who served as the head of the Xigui Village Group and the director of the Bangdong Village Committee from 1996 to 2007, his ancestors migrated to Xigui in the 1930s from the Dazhaoshan area upstream to escape Nationalist military conscription. At that time, Xigui was sparsely populated with relatively fertile land, gradually attracting people fleeing military service or seeking refuge from other places.

Archaeological discoveries at the “Old Bangdong Neolithic Site” and the “Xigui Neolithic Site” show that humans lived and thrived in the Bangdong area over 2,000 years ago. The exact origin of the tea trees on Manglu Mountain is difficult to trace, but the earliest written record appears in the Myan Ning County Annals, compiled by Qiu Tinghe in 1948: “There are about six to seven thousand tea-growing households in the county, with Manglu and Xigui in Bangdong Township being particularly famous. The quality of Manglu tea surpasses other tea-producing areas.”

The term “Manglu” refers to today's Manglu Mountain, while “Xigui” is the present name. This is the earliest historical reference to Xigui tea. During the Republican period, local county officials often preferred Drinking Tea from Manglu Mountain.

Around 1970, 100 kilograms of refined Manglu tea were annually delivered to the county, referred to locally as “County Party Committee Tea.”

Tea Mountain Resources

Xigui tea gained fame early, even surpassing Bingdao in popularity when the craze for mountain teas first began. The unique geographic feature of being backed by Mount Bangdong Daxueshan and facing the Lancang River creates a distinctive “microclimate” with frequent fog and mist, short daylight hours, less direct sunlight, and more diffused light.

Cold air descending from the southeastern slope of Mount Bangdong Daxueshan meets the warm, humid air rising from the Lancang River, forming dense cumulonimbus clouds in the Lancang River valley of Bangdong in the morning. Before 9 AM, the dense sea of clouds covers the area around Manglu Mountain, earning Xigui the reputation of being “a hidden wonderland in the clouds.”

When sunlight penetrates the cloud cover and diffuses onto the tea plants, it effectively reduces leaf transpiration, helping maintain the freshness of the tea plants. Moreover, the mountain valley experiences large temperature differences between day and night. High daytime temperatures strengthen photosynthesis, while cooler nighttime temperatures slow down Metabolism.

This increases the accumulation of nutrients within the tea leaves, raising the content of aromatic compounds, polyphenols, amino acids, and other components, thereby enhancing the overall quality of the tea. The entire Manglu Mountain faces the sun, with about half consisting of ancient tea gardens and the other half covered by subtropical rainforest.

The ancient tea garden is beautifully scenic, with open vistas allowing clear views of the Lancang River at the foot of the mountain. Here, the climate is subtropical monsoon rainforest, and the biodiversity surrounding the ancient tea trees is well-preserved. Commonly seen plants include red toon, camphor, large-leaved fig, cow ribwort, wild olive, and wild mango.

(Photography by Zhu Li)

Tall trees mix with the ancient tea garden, providing shade. Walking through the ancient tea garden, one can see that the tea varieties are mainly the large dark-leafed Bangdong type, mixed with large, medium, and small-leaved varieties. The large dark-leafed Bangdong is a unique high-quality variety in Yunnan's provincial standards and one of the primary tea varieties grown in Linxiang District and Lincang City.

The traditional method of vine tea cultivation is still practiced in Xigui, so many vine tea trees can be found in the ancient tea garden. The branches extend several meters like vines, intertwining and growing luxuriantly, mostly hiding the trunks. Some larger ancient tea trees have girths of over one meter, with canopies spreading three to four meters wide. Sitting under these ancient tea trees provides ample shade. Before 2008, the ecological environment in the