Pu'er City, as one of the three major Pu'er Tea production areas, often sees its ancient tree teas priced at only several hundred yuan per kilogram. Among these, besides the outstanding Jingmai tea, there's another that stands much higher than the rest but is frequently overlooked.

It has set a record for 15 consecutive years of rising tea prices and even topped Weibo's hot search list with fresh leaves from its ancient trees selling for 12,800 yuan per kilogram. At its peak, the price of its tea was on par with that of Lao Banzhang. This place that soared to prominence is none other than the Kunlushan Royal Ancient Tea Garden.

The History of Kunlushan's Tribute Tea

Starting from Ning'er County, travel northwest for over thirty kilometers until you see the sign for “Kunlushan Royal Ancient Tea Garden.” Ascend the mountain and before long, you'll arrive at the Kunlushan Ancient Tea Garden, where peaks overlap and clouds shroud the area in mist. The altitude here ranges from 1,410 to 2,271 meters. It is the largest cluster of ancient tea forests in Ning'er County and also the closest ancient tea garden to the provincial capital of Kunming, with the densest concentration of ancient tea trees, the richest variety, and the best ecosystem among such gardens.

Kunlushan is geographically part of the Wuliang Mountains and administratively belongs to Ning'er County, Pu'er City, under the jurisdiction of the Kuanhong Village Committee in Ning'er Town (also known as Kunlu Mountain). Notably, the total area of the ancient tea tree cluster in Kunlushan spans 10,122 mu, crossing the boundaries of Fengyang and Babian Townships. Of this, 1,939 mu are located within the Kuanhong Village of Ning'er Town, which is the essence of the entire Kunlushan ancient tea garden covering nearly two thousand mu.

The term “Kunlu” cannot be taken literally; it is a phonetic translation with various interpretations depending on the language. According to Dai language, “Kun” means depression and “Lu” means bird or sparrow, combining to mean a depression filled with birds. However, according to the “Simao Hall Records. Supplement. Phonetic Attachments to Place Names,” the term should be interpreted using the Bulang language, where “Kun” refers to a large village and “Lu” is the name of the village head (chieftain), making “Kunlushan” the name of the large village headed by someone surnamed “Lu.”

The glory of Kunlushan began with tribute tea, but unlike famous tea mountains like Mansong, Yibang, and Yiwu, the Kunlushan Royal Ancient Tea Garden remained relatively secretive. After the implementation of the “replace native officials with imperial appointees” policy in Yunnan during the seventh year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty, the government improved its management of the area, including the regulations for tribute tea, which was one of the benefits for the royal family. In Ning'er Town, Pu'er Prefecture, a tribute tea office was established, and every Spring Tea season, the government would enforce a “closed guest policy,” dispatching local troops to patrol key points on Kunlushan and supervise the picking and production of spring tea.

After the end of the tribute tea system in the late Qing dynasty, Kunlushan remained largely unknown. In the 1980s, experts discovered a transitional tea tree cluster here. Later, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other authoritative institutions organized multiple batches of experts to conduct several focused investigations of the tea tree cluster in Kunlushan, concluding that the cultivated tea trees in Kunlushan have a history of over 400 years, while the semi-cultivated (transitional) tea trees are more than 1,000 years old. This secret tea paradise thus returned to public attention.

Kunlushan Without Pursuit of Fame

The tea resources in Kunlushan are abundant. Surrounding villages have vast areas of cultivated and transitional tea trees with diverse forms, including towering trees over two stories high, massive tea king trees that are difficult to encircle with both arms, as well as ancient tea trees with large, medium, and small leaves. These trees can be described as complete in variety and rich in history.

The Kunlushan Royal Ancient Tea Garden at an altitude of 1,900 meters can be divided into four regions: east, south, west, and north, covering nearly 2,000 mu in total. Fortunately, the tea trees here escaped the large-scale pruning trend of the 1990s and were not subjected to artificial trimming, so their shapes resemble ordinary arbor trees, tall and straight.

However, despite its excellent ecosystem, Kunlushan faces similar issues to Jingmai. From the chemical composition of the soil, the phosphorus content here is relatively high (11.98 mg/kg), but the other indicators are not ideal, especially the organic matter content, which is only 5.64 g/kg, slightly higher than Jingmai's 2.91 g/kg. The possible causes and measures to take were extensively discussed in the Jingmai chapter, so I won't delve into them further here.

Encouragingly, the local community started protecting the tea garden early on. Previously, villagers lived in the old village within the ancient tea garden, creating a pattern where “the village is in the forest and the tea is in the village.” However, to better protect the area, they began relocating to a new village about one kilometer away from the ancient tea garden since 2012, forming a small settlement with only a dozen Yi households.

Additionally, above the Royal Ancient Tea Garden, at an altitude close to 2,500 meters, there is a “Ning'er County Wild Ancient Tea Tree Original Habitat Reserve” established by the state, containing over a thousand wild ancient tea trees in their natural environment. The famous actor Zhang Guoli once adopted a tea king tree here. Compared to the Royal Tea Garden, this place is even more remote and less known.

As the former site of tribute tea, the quality of Kunlushan tea is also very good. Based on the internal quality analysis, its Caffeine content is 3.56%, ester-type catechin content is 5.20%, and free amino acid content is 5.21%, all at moderately high levels. This results in a slightly bitter and astringent taste that quickly turns sweet in the mouth.

Surprisingly, the aroma of Kunlushan tea is particularly unique, achieving a perfect balance between the aroma in the tea soup and the aroma in the cup. Its fragrance is uplifting yet grounded, offering an overall taste experience that is sweet, smooth, fragrant, and mellow. Truly:

Clouds conceal Kunlu, no trace of deer remains, deep in the mountains, plants show affection.
Not competing with Bingdao for wealth and rank, not vying with Banzhang for fame.
The royal ancient tea still exists, budding anew to sing for you.

The Heavenly Paradise of Lao Wushan

Mentioning the famous mountains of Pu'er City, Jingmai Mountain is renowned for its ten-thousand-mu ecological ancient tea garden, while Kunlushan became famous for its royal ancient tea garden. Less known is the fact that in Zhenyuan County, known as the “Hometown of the World's Tea Tree King,” there is a natural paradise called Lao Wushan, capable of producing up to 370 tons of tea annually.

Geographically, Lao Wushan is a spur of the central Wuliang Mountains, stretching for dozens of kilometers across multiple towns and districts in Zhenyuan County, including Zhentai Town, Anban Town, Mengda Town, Xiaojinggu Town, and Fengshan Town in Jinggu County. The ancient tea garden covers 2,870 mu, second only to Jingmai Mountain in scale within the Pu'er tea-producing region, with great potential for tea industry development.

Lao Wushan is famous for its fog. As previously detailed in the chapters on Lao Banzhang and Xigui, Lu Li elaborated on the nurturing effects of fog on tea trees. Lao Wushan is no exception, with an average altitude of