TeaHQ

Zhenjiang

The tea district of southern Jiangsu, on the hills and piedmont slopes of the Ning-Zhen and Maoshan ranges where they rise from the south bank of the Yangtze. Its tea is Jinshan Cuiya, a flat-pressed green named for the Jinshan temple, and the district matters agronomically for a reason that has nothing to do with fame: this is one of the northernmost places in China where tea is grown commercially, and the soils are explicitly transitional between the northern and southern types, running from loam to light clay. Growing tea at this latitude is a frost calculation as much as a soil one. The protected area is the whole of Zhenjiang's Runzhou, Jingkou and Dantu districts and its New Area, together with Danyang and Jurong.

鎮江China20–400 metresAlso called Jinshan CuiyaAlso called RunzhouAlso called Ning-Zhen hills

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.

Protected designation

Agricultural-product geographical indication, Ministry of Agriculture, 2009 — reported as the first nationally protected GI agricultural product in Jiangsu — and a national GI certification trademark in 2015.

A protected designation governs who may use the name, and in which jurisdictions. It is not a quality mark and it does not certify how any particular lot was made — it settles what the word on the packet is allowed to mean.

Elevation

Recorded at 20–400 metres.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. Hills and piedmont slopes rather than mountains; the band is read from the Ning-Zhen and Maoshan ranges and no source consulted gives a planting figure.

Soil

Transitional between the northern and southern Chinese soil types, running from loam to light clay, and described in the geographical-indication material as the most suitable tea soil in southern Jiangsu.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. Reported in the GI material rather than read from a soil survey, and carried as a description of the ground rather than as an explanation of the cup.

How the name is written

Also transliterated as zhenjiang, chenkiang. 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

  • Jin Shan Cui Ya — Nutty and clean, closer to Longjing than to anything else, and honest about being a recent invention.

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
  • 金山翠芽 — agricultural-product geographical indication (Ministry of Agriculture, 2009) and national GI certification trademark (2015) — 中华人民共和国农业部 (Ministry of Agriculture of the PRC) for the 2009 agricultural-product GI; 国家工商行政管理总局 for the 2015 certification trademark. Described in Zhenjiang municipal and Jiangsu provincial material.

How TeaHQ handles sources