Among the 16 administrative villages and 103 natural villages in Shuangjiang County's Mengku Town, there are far more than eighteen Tea-producing hamlets. Within these eighteen, there are also more than just the five Bingdao hamlets that produce fine teas. Zhengqitang is one such place, unassuming and understated, emerging like a tender bud under the shadow of the famed Bingdao Five Hamlets.
A Resting Ground Amidst Clouds and Mist
Shuangjiang is located along a branch of the ancient Southern Tea Horse Road (known as “Yifang Land”), where the Northern route of the large-leafed tea from Mengku passed through the tea market in Taiheng Town (today's Boshang Town in Lincang District) to be sold in Kham and Amdo, or through Cangyuan and Gengma for trade with Myanmar. The Southern route had caravans passing through here, using Zhengqitang as a resting ground for their horses. Zhengqitang was formerly called Zhangqitang. According to legend, there was a pond near Tian Sheng Bridge in ancient times, hiding a giant python that would exhale black mist on cloudy days, leading people to suspect the presence of miasma, hence its name. In 1903, Peng Kun, the military and civil official who governed Shuangjiang for about 20 years and contributed significantly to the process of replacing local rule by chieftains with direct imperial administration, renamed Zhangqitang to Zhengqitang while camping here during his campaign against the Lahu uprising to ward off evil spirits.
The journey up the mountain is long, coinciding with spring rain, guided by villagers, we retraced the old caravan route. Fallen leaves covered the path, ancient trees lined the road, and the sound of camel bells from days past had long faded into the distance. Only the mountain deity shrine stands solemnly in the rain, birds singing amidst the deep valley. From here, the time-worn plank road stretches long and winding, with wooden bridges and streams trickling alongside.
Glimpsing the remaining Blue-tiled yellow walls of the village from afar, memories of its former bustling scene only highlight the desolation Zhengqitang now exudes. The ancient stone bridge that once saw the passage of caravans is located 20 kilometers east of Mengku Town, over the Nase River in the small village of Nase. Composed of five stone slabs, it is less than 5 meters long, with its western pier formed by a naturally occurring boulder. It is said that there used to be a pavilion-style shelter on the bridge, which has since been demolished. In ancient times, there were three main routes connecting Shuangjiang to Lincang and onward to the inland areas. One of them, starting from Mengku, went through Manglinpo, Xabangmu, Shabangmu, Nase, Xiaocunhe, Zhengqitang, Tian Sheng Bridge, Manlong, Boshang, and finally Lincang. This route was known as the “Green Silk Road.”
Zhengqitang is a natural village under the jurisdiction of Nase Village Committee in Mengku Town, Shuangjiang County, Lincang City. It is essentially a mountain hollow at an elevation of about 1,900 meters, enjoying ample sunlight and abundant rainfall. There are always around forty households, with only three or four being Lahu. According to incomplete statistics, there are a total of 1,810 mu of tea gardens throughout the Nase tea area, and it is understood that the ancient tree tea gardens in Zhengqitang cover less than a thousand mu.
With the rise in tea prices over the past decade, villagers have begun converting farmland into tea gardens. The large-leafed tea of Zhengqitang, after years of cultivation, has become a tea garden with hanging branches. After the secondary road opened in 2012, tea merchants gradually started entering the village to buy raw tea, either for resale or for processing into their own products.
Upon entering the village, one can see the largest initial processing facility, which is the property of Li Benxue, a local villager. Although often described as being cut off from the outside world, Li Benxue has personally experienced the fluctuations in the Pu'er tea market since he started making tea in 1996. Fresh leaves were worth only a few cents in the 1990s, but the price fluctuated wildly, plummeting in 2007 before gradually recovering and warming up in 2008. Since 2012, the price has risen and remained relatively stable. Every household in the village primarily focuses on growing and processing tea, selling fresh leaves or raw materials. Overall, since tea-making is a business, it is focused on customer needs. During the era when no one cared about Pu'er tea, the villagers made black tea, and even today, if there is a market for it, they still make black tea.
Whether in terms of tea garden area or production, Zhengqitang cannot match the hanging branch tea gardens in Bamu. There are over ten initial processing facilities in the entire village, with the total output of Spring Tea reaching over ten tons, of which Li Benxue's family alone can produce two tons. The tea from Zhengqitang is not as famous as that from Nase and Xiaocun among the three hamlets of Nase. During the spring tea season, the price of fresh leaves from younger trees ranges from dozens to hundreds of yuan, while the highest price for ancient tree raw tea can reach 1,500 to 1,600 yuan. Currently, villagers are generally satisfied with selling fresh leaves and raw materials. If there are customer orders, only a small amount is processed into finished tea. Compared to the astronomical prices of over 40,000 yuan per kilogram for spring tea from Bingdao this year, it pales in comparison.
The “Second-Tier” Advantage Amidst Marshes
The mountainside tea gardens on the eastern half of Mengku run from Hai Gong, Bangdu, Nase, Naqiao, to Bamu, and extend all the way to Nuowu and Babai near Bingdao Village, forming an ancient tea garden belt running nearly north-south. The ancient tea trees on the eastern half of the mountains are both found in concentrated patches and scattered individually. The main concentrated ancient tea gardens include the Lahu ancient village Xiaocun in Nase, the 10-kilometer-long hanging branch tea ancient tea garden in Naqiao, and the hanging branch tea ancient tea garden in Bamu. National Highway 214 passes through Hai Gong and enters the next village in Shuangjiang, which is Nase. Historically, this has been the necessary route for trading tea from the Mengku basin to the ancient town of Boshang. Zhengqitang is one of the three natural villages belonging to Nase, with the highest altitude exceeding 2,000 meters. It is one of the few high-altitude ecological ancient tea gardens on the eastern half of the mountains. Before Bingdao tea became famous, tea from the eastern half of the mountains was more popular and commanded higher prices than that from the western half. Then, as everyone knows, the prices of tea from the western half, led by Bingdao, skyrocketed, eventually leaving the eastern half behind. Not until after the publication of Ms. Zhan Yingpei's book “The Place Where the Tea Ancestor Lives: Yunnan Shuangjiang” in 2010, which provided a detailed description of hanging branch tea for the first time, did the “Two Nases and Bamu” tea area on the eastern half of the mountains begin to attract attention with hanging branch tea as its new selling point and breakthrough.
As is well known, the tea from the western half of the mountains has a delicate fragrance and a lingering taste. However, the ancient tree teas produced in the Nase tea area share characteristics common to the eastern half of the mountains, growing towards the sun, thus being bitter but less Astringent, with a rich flavor and uplifting aroma, particularly noticeable in the spring tea. Among them, Zhengqitang is at the highest altitude in the Nase tea area, receiving abundant rain in summer and heavy clouds and mist. As it is located on the sunny slope of the eastern half of the mountains, the tea trees here grow vigorously, with sprawling crowns and dense leaves covered in fine hairs. The mountains are perpetually shrouded in clouds and mist,