TeaHQ

Xiushui

A north-western Jiangxi county in the Xiushui river valley, historically known as Ningzhou and the source of Ning Hong — among the earliest of China’s gongfu black teas and a significant nineteenth-century export. The same county produces Gou Gu Nao, a downy spring green from higher slopes. Ning Hong’s prominence faded as Keemun rose, which is why a tea once traded across Europe is now barely known outside China.

修水China200–1000 metresAlso called Ning Hong districtAlso called Ningzhou

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 200–1000 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 pluck for the downy green from the higher slopes, and a longer season behind it for the gongfu black the county is named for — black-tea manufacture tolerates a maturity the fine green standard does not, so the two products divide the year between them rather than competing for the same leaf.

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

How production is organised

Smallholder gardens supplying small factories in a county whose tea trade is a fraction of what it was. Reviving a black tea that the market forgot is a different problem from maintaining one it did not: the plants and the knowledge are there, and the buyers are not.

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 xiu shui, xiushui. 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

  • Ning Hong — Sweet, dark and fruity, with a dried-longan note that is common in Chinese blacks and rare elsewhere.
  • Gou Gu Nao — Notably floral for a Chinese green, with a sweetness that lingers longer than the light body suggests.

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