Tea Regions

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JING sources exceptional teas tea from the most prestigious tea growing regions in the world. They are: China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Sri Lanka.

These regions bow to ancient traditions and rules, paying meticulous attention to how tea should be grown and processed. In many of these areas, tea continues to be produced by hand, with the utmost care.

CHINA

With its long standing history of tea production, China is, without question, the source of all tea and tea knowledge.

It is indisputable that tea was cultivated here centuries before it was grown anywhere else. Whatever tea you want, you should look to china before looking anywhere else.

Tea is produced in seventeen principle regions; Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi Zhuang, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Szechwan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang.

Up until the Second World War and the advent of communism in China, the Chinese exported more than half the world's tea; today they export less than 10%.

JAPAN

Tea was brought to Japan from China. Much of the Song dynasty’s knowledge of whipping powdered tea into froth still remains common in Japan even though it is no longer practiced in China.

Tea in Japan plays a vital role in custom, philosophy and everyday life.

Around 110,000 tons are produced a year, primarily green, but only 2% of it will survive to export, the rest being consumed in the country.

The main teas produced in Japan are Sencha, Gyokuro and Genmai Cha.

TAIWAN

Formerly known as Formosa - a name given to Taiwan by Portuguese traders it means "beautiful island”.

Tea here is cultivated and processed at lower altitudes than in most other regions of Asia and the Indian Sub-continent.

The bulk of the tea produced here is oolong tea and is considered by connoisseurs to be the finest Oolong produced anywhere in the world.

Today, only about two percent of the island's famous exceptional tea produce makes it to being exported.

INDIA

India is home to many major tea-producing regions, most notably Assam, Nilgiri and Darjeeling.

Tea production in India became as vast as it now is thanks to the English who first made it a major crop early in the nineteenth century.

Today, it is one of the largest producers of black tea in the world, if not the largest; with an annual harvest exceeding 800,000 tons, half of which is produced in Assam alone.

Tea continues to be cultivated on small family plots, which number close to forty thousand.

SRI LANKA

Having gained independence in 1972, the colony formerly known as Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka, but chose to keep the colonial name running on its tea.

With its favourable weather conditions and fertile soil, the production of Ceylon tea is the island’s single largest agricultural crop.

Grown at between 3,000 and 8,000 feet, the altitude and moist weather gives ideal conditions and the tea bushes flush frequently.

Formerly the world’s largest producer of tea, economic and political setbacks have forced Sri Lanka to reduce its yield, though what tea is produced today remains of the highest quality and in heavy demand the world over.

Tea Cities & Provinces of China:

Anhui Province

Anhui is located in east China, across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. It borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny section in the north. The capital of the district is Hefei.

The name "Anhui" derives from the names of two cities Anqing and Huizhou. Anhui is abbreviated to "Wan", because there were historically a State of Wan, a Mount Wan, and a Wan river in the province.

Fujian Province

The province is mostly mountainous, and is traditionally described to be "Eight parts mountain, one part water, and one part farmland". The northwest is higher in altitude, with the Wuyi Mountains forming the border between Fujian and Jaingxi.
The province faces East China Sea to the east, South China Sea to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the southeast.

The River Min Jiang and its tributaries cut through much of northern and central Fujian, other rivers include the Jinjiang and the Juilong River. Due to its uneven topography, Fujian has many cliffs and rapids.
Fujian has a subtropical climate. Temperatures are high in summer and warm in winter and the province is threatened by typhoons coming in from the Pacific.

Anxi County in Fujian Province

Anxi is the ancient Chinese name for Parthia (NW Iran). Anxi was described as an advanced urban civilization by the Chinese explorer Zhang Quian, who visited the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in 126BC.

“The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. They have walled cities and the region contains several hundred cities of various sizes. The coins of the country are made of silver and bear the face of the king. When the king dies, the currency is immediately changed and new coins issued with the face of his successor”.

Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province

The Wuyi Mountains are a mountain range located at the northern border of Fujian and Jiangxi province. It is the most outstanding biodiversity conservation zone of SE China. Numerous types of tea are produced around Mount Wuyi, it is the origin of the real Da Hong Pao Tea, Bohea and Lapsang souchoung

Human settlement on the slopes of Mount Wuyi can be traced back 4,000 years by archeological remains. In the 7th century, the Wuyi Palace was built for emperors to conduct sacrificial activities, a site that tourists can still visit today. The mountains were an important center of Taoism and later Buddhism.

Remains of 35 academies erected from the era of the Northern Song (960-1279AD) to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and more than 60 Taoist temples and monasteries have been located. The area is the cradle of Neo-Confucianism, a fusion of traditional Chinese philosophies popularized in the 11th century.

Guangdong Province

Guangdong or Canton province is on the south coast of China, "Guang" itself means "expanse" or "vast".
The province is now one of the richest in the nation, with the highest total GDP among all provinces, and has managed to attract 30 million migrants. Guangdong contributes approximately 12% of national economic output. Guangzhou, the capital and Shenzhen are among the most important cities in China.

Yunnan Province

Yúnnán; literally "south of the clouds" is a province located in the far southwestern corner of the country. The capital of the province is Kunming. Yunnan is the most southwestern province in China, with the Tropic of Cancer running through its southern part.

The province borders Guangxi Zhuang Region and Guizhou Province in the east, Sichuan Province in the north, and Tibet in the northwest. It shares a border with Myanmar in the west, Laos in the south, and Vietnam in the southeast.
The highest point in the north is the Kawagebo Peak in Deqin County on the Diqing Plateau, which is about 6,740metres high; and the lowest is in the Honghe River Valley in Hekou County, with an elevation of 76.4 meters.

Zhejiang Province

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of China. The word Zhejiang (crooked river) was the old name of the Qiantang River which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital. The name of the province is often abbreviated to "Zhe".

Zhejiang borders Jiangsu province and Shanghai municipality to the north, Anhui province to the northwest, Jiangxi province to the west, and Fujian province to the south; to the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lie the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.