--- title: "Chéngbù dòngchá" url: https://thetea.app/article/chengbu-dongcha lang: en updated: 2026-10-01 source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app) --- # Chéngbù dòngchá (城步峒茶) *Chéngbù dòngchá* (城步峒茶) is a tea of Chengbu Miao Autonomous County (城步苗族自治县) of Shaoyang prefecture-level city in the southwest of Hunan Province, near the border with Guangxi. 峒茶 (*dòngchá*) is the name of a local population of the tea bush, not of a class: broken red tea was made from it for export, today red and green teas are made from it, and the Miao and Dong of the county have long cooked the base for oil tea from its leaf. The Shaoyang market regulation administration calls it one of the four best local tea bush populations in Hunan and assigns it to the southern large-leaf arbor type. Since 2022 the name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark. **1. Classification and Origin:** * **Type:** Class not established: the name denotes a bush population and a place; the sources do not name a product class. The reference article considers the raw material suitable for both red and green tea, “especially for red”. * **Category:** Tea of a local bush population; geographical indication certification mark (2022). * **Origin:** China, Hunan Province (湖南, *Húnán*), Shaoyang prefecture-level city (邵阳, *Shàoyáng*), Chengbu Miao Autonomous County (城步, *Chéngbù*). * **Zone:** The 2024 provincial list gives Chengbu County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not found the legal boundary of the zone. The reference article names the townships and towns where the population grows: Tingping (汀坪), Weixi (威溪), Rulin (儒林), Lanrong (兰蓉), Baimaoping (白毛坪), Wutuan (五团), Chang'anying (长安营) and Dankou (丹口). * **Geographic coordinates:** For the Gaomei — Pengdong area of Tingping Township the reference article gives 25°58′–26°02′ N and 110°14′–110°20′ E. **2. History and Cultural Significance:** * **History:** * **Old records.** The reference article quotes a line from the *Chronicle of the Land of Chengbu* (城步乡土志): “茶有八峒茶·略可采用” — “among the teas there is the tea of the eight dong, partly fit for use”. Local publications give it differently — “城步有八峒茶，可采”; I have not seen the original source. * **1974–1982 — finds.** According to the same article, in 1974 a tall wild bush with a broad, thick leaf was found; in 1975 specialists of the Hunan Agricultural College described it as a semi-arbor large-leaf tea. In 1982 a bush 7.28 m tall with a trunk diameter of 41.1 cm was found at Caojiawan (曹家湾). * **Transplanting trial.** In 1975–1980 there were attempts to grow the population in another area of Shaoyang; the plants turned into shrubs, the leaf became smaller, and it was judged to be an ecotype bound to its place. * **1980s — broken red tea.** The reference article writes that in 1984 broken red tea from this population made by the Qiliping (七里坪) factory received the title of provincial quality product, and that the heyday came in the mid-1980s: all the leaf was bought up for export. With the departure of Chinese red tea from the foreign market in the mid-1990s, the population fell into decline. * **1986–1987 — variety.** In June 1986 the population was recognized as a provincial local variety; in 1987 — by the provincial variety commission. * **2020.** According to the reference article, the county announced the protection and registration of old tea trees. * **2022 — mark.** The China National Intellectual Property Administration, in issue 1777 of the trademark gazette, announced “城步峒茶” as a geographical indication certification mark; the reference article dates the start of its validity to January 28, 2022. For Shaoyang it was the first new geographical mark of that year — as the prefecture market regulation administration reported on February 23. * **Name:** * “Chengbu” (城步) is the name of the county. * “Dong” (峒, *dòng*) — according to the reference article, this was the name of administrative units in the mountain lands of the Miao; under the Ming there were five such “dong” in Chengbu. The tea is “named after the place” — hence 峒茶. * **Cultural significance:** *Hunan Ribao* writes that the Miao and Dong of Chengbu have long been accustomed to drinking oil tea (油茶, *yóuchá*), that Chengbu oil tea is on the provincial intangible heritage list, and that its main raw material is precisely the 峒茶 leaf. **3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:** * **Population:** A seed-propagated (有性系) local population. Official reports call it the southern large-leaf arbor type (南方大叶种[乔木](https://thetea.app/article/qiaomuguanmu)型); the reference article elsewhere writes “small tree, medium-leaf, mid-season” (小乔木型，中叶类，中生种). The sources do not explain the discrepancy. * **Two forms:** By the color of the mature leaf, local people distinguish “green-leaf *dòngchá*” (青叶峒茶, also called [竹叶](https://thetea.app/article/zhuye)茶 and 绵茶) and “yellow-leaf *dòngchá*” (黄叶峒茶). * **Bush and leaf:** According to the reference article, the trunk is distinct and the branches are sparse; the leaf is long-elliptic, green or dark green, glossy. The shoots are yellow-green, heavily pubescent, and stay tender for a long time. * **Timing:** Spring buds break at the end of March, and harvest begins in mid-April — according to the same article. * **Harvest standard:** For the tea under the mark, there are no data in the sources consulted. **4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:** * **Region:** Southwest Hunan, at the junction with Guangxi. The *Shaoyang Chronicle*, which the reference article cites, places the main area in Tingping Township on the border with the Guangxi counties of Longsheng and Ziyuan, at the northwestern edge of the Yuechengling range (越城岭). * **Growing altitude:** 300–700 m in the Tingping area — according to the reference article; the same article writes about groups of old bushes above 1700 m in Nanshan National Park. * **Climate:** According to the reference article — about 18 °C on average over the year, 1560.7 mm of precipitation, about a hundred foggy days. * **Soils:** Mainly red soils, slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.5), with an organic matter content of 3.09% — according to the reference article and the prefecture chronicle it cites. * **Scale:** According to the Shaoyang market regulation administration (2022) — 30,000 mu of plantings; the reference article gives more than 40,000 mu of wild and planted bushes as of 2020. **5. Production Technology:** I have not seen a document with technology requirements for the tea under the mark. The sources consulted describe three lines. * **Broken red tea.** The main product of the 1980s, for export; processing parameters are not found in the sources consulted. * **Modern teas.** The reference article writes about the production of red and green tea, but does not describe the technology. * **Tea cakes for oil tea.** According to the reference article, the leaf is picked around Qingming and Guyu, boiled in an iron pot with rice water, simmered for several hours over a low fire, kneaded while hot, shaped into cakes the size of a handful, and finished drying over a fire and in the sun. **6. Organoleptic Characteristics:** Teas of different classes go under the mark, so there is no general description. Below is the description of red tea from this population according to the reference article. * **Dry leaf appearance:** No descriptions in the sources consulted. * **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions in the sources consulted. * **Liquor aroma:** For red tea — rich and long-lasting (香气浓郁持久), with a floral-honey note (花蜜香). * **Taste:** For red tea — mellow (醇和); elsewhere in the same article — mellow and refreshing (醇和爽口). * **Liquor color:** For red tea — deep red and bright (红浓明亮). * **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No descriptions in the sources consulted. For oil tea, according to the same article, the yellow-leaf form gives a thicker taste and withstands more infusions than the green-leaf form. **7. Chemical Composition:** Reference texts give percentages of polyphenols, amino acids, catechins and extractive substances, but the figures contradict each other even within a single text, and neither the method nor the sample is named. For this reason I do not carry them over. **8. Health Properties:** There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea. **9. Brewing:** Class practice — the parameters depend on which tea you have in hand. * **Red:** 90–95 °C, 3–5 g per 150 ml, first infusion 15–30 seconds in a gaiwan, then four or five more infusions, adding 10–15 seconds each time. * **Green:** 80–85 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion 40–60 seconds in a glass tumbler or a gaiwan, two or three further infusions. **10. Storage:** Class practice. Green tea — in airtight packaging, in the refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors, to be drunk within a year. Red — in a dry, dark place at room temperature, in tight packaging, away from odors. **11. Price and Counterfeits:** No price data in the sources consulted. * **How to avoid counterfeits:** * Look for the geographical indication certification mark “城步峒茶” on the packaging. * Check that the producer is from Chengbu County. * Look for the tea class on the label: both red and green come out under the same name. **12. Interesting Facts:** * The reference article calls the 7.28 m bush from Caojiawan the tallest tea tree in Hunan. * The word “峒” in the name means not “cave” but an old administrative unit in the Miao mountains. **13. Comparison with Other Teas:** * **Taoyuan Daye Cha ([桃源大叶茶](https://thetea.app/article/taoyuan-daye-cha)):** Another Hunan name based on a local large-leaf variety; also without a single class. * **Rucheng Bai Mao Cha ([汝城白毛茶](https://thetea.app/article/rucheng-baimaocha)):** A Hunan tea from a local large-leaf wild resource. * **Baojing Huang Jin Cha (保靖黄金茶):** A Hunan tea named after a local variety — green; red tea is also made from the same variety. **In Conclusion:** *Chéngbù dòngchá* is the name not of a class but of a living bush population from the mountains at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi. Its history is old trees found in the 1970s–1980s, export broken red tea, decline, and a return under a geographical mark in 2022. The sources agree on the main point: the raw material shows itself best in red tea, and at home among the Miao and Dong it goes into oil tea.