TeaHQ

Fengqing

The Lincang county where Yunnan black tea was invented rather than inherited. Dian Hong is conventionally dated to 1939 and credited to Feng Shaoqiu, who applied gongfu black-tea method to Yunnan’s large-leaf assamica after the war cut China’s established black-tea districts off from the export trade — an origin story that is specific, recent and repeated consistently, though TeaHQ has not verified it against a primary document. The local Fengqing Da Ye Zhong is a broad-leaved, heavily budded plant, which is why Dian Hong carries so much golden tip. The county also holds the Xiangzhuqing tree, one of the very old cultivated tea plants Yunnan uses to argue its case as a domestication centre.

鳳慶China1000–2200 metresAlso called Shunning

History on this page: TeaHQ synthesis

TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

This district’s description dates something — a founding, a first planting, a period of expansion. The label above says on what basis, and it applies to the historical statements rather than to the elevation, climate or soil claims below, which carry their own confidence separately.

Elevation

Recorded at 1000–2200 metres.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

When it is picked

A spring pick from a broad-leaved, heavily budded local plant, which is why the district's black tea carries so much golden tip. Later pickings go to lower grades with less tip and correspondingly less of the character the tea is bought for.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How the name is written

Also transliterated as feng qing, fengqing, shunning. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.

Teas this region is known for

  • Dian Hong — Thick, sweet and low in astringency, with a baked sweet-potato note that is close to unmistakable. Among the friendliest black teas to drink without milk.
  • Yunnan Golden Bud — Thick and honeyed with essentially no grip — the sweetest black tea in the catalogue, and the one most easily ruined by boiling water.
  • Yunnan Bai Hao black — One of the sweetest black teas made anywhere, thick without being astringent, with the peppery Yunnan signature underneath.

Other growing regions in China

The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.

Sources

  • TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.

How TeaHQ handles sources