Chénglóuzhài chá (城楼寨茶) is a flat green tea from Mount Chenglouzhai in Jiujie Subdistrict (旧街街道) of Xinzhou District (新洲区) on the eastern outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei Province. The 345 m mountain is the highest point of Jiujie, and its name comes from a stone fort from the time of the Taiping Rebellion that resembled the gate tower of a city wall. Since 2013 the name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark — the oldest of the three tea marks of a single subdistrict. The class is named not in the mark but in the provincial intangible heritage list (2024).
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá) — unfermented. The mark was issued for the goods “tea” (茶叶) without a class; the class is named in the seventh provincial intangible heritage list of Hubei, which the provincial government approved in December 2024: in its extension list, the Chenglouzhai tea-making technique (城楼寨茶叶制作技艺, applicant — Xinzhou District) is listed under item No. VIII-27 “Green tea making technique” (绿茶制作技艺), next to the techniques of three other Hubei green teas. This is the only document found that names the class; neither the mark itself nor a standard or quality requirements name it. The descriptions agree with this: a flat leaf, a tender green liquor. The shape, however, has changed: in 1951 the factory made curled tea.
- Category: Flat green tea with a geographical indication certification mark (证明商标, zhèngmíng shāngbiāo); an “old brand” (老字号, lǎozìhào) of Wuhan and of Hubei Province.
- Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), the city of Wuhan (武汉, Wǔhàn), Xinzhou District (新洲, Xīnzhōu), Jiujie Subdistrict (旧街, Jiùjiē), Mount Chenglouzhai on the border with Tuanfeng County (团风县).
- Protection zone: The provincial register gives Xinzhou District as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
- Mark: Geographical indication certification mark No. 10479862, goods — “tea”. First term — from June 28, 2013 to June 27, 2023. I have not seen the holder in the register; the press writes about the Chenglouzhai Tea Association (2011), whose core is the Chenglouzhai tea factory (新洲区旧街城楼寨茶厂). In the list of mark users of the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration (January 2026), the factory’s right is valid until June 27, 2033: the mark has been renewed.
- Geographic coordinates: Exact coordinates of the mountain are not found in the sources consulted.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Xianfeng (咸丰) years, mid-19th century. According to a note from the Ministry of Commerce’s digital museum of “old brands”, Hu Baiwan (胡百万), a member of the local gentry, in the first years of the Taiping Rebellion, raised a militia and fortified himself on Mount Chenglouzhai; the militiamen fed themselves from their own land and at the same time began to plant and make tea.
- 1951. According to the museum note, the Chenglouzhai tea factory was set up by the ruins of the fort: 60 mu of new gardens, 12 workers, handmade curled (卷曲形) tea. Elsewhere the note says otherwise: in 1951 the Yanliwan forest farm (烟李湾林场) was set up, and the factory split off from it after 1978.
- 1995–1999. According to the same note, the factory kept to handmade flat tea, received a prize for it in Hubei and trained about seventy craftsmen; since then the flat “Bifeng” (碧峰) has become established. In the 2000s the factory became private and switched mainly to machine production; handmade tea was made in small amounts.
- 2003–2006. An organic tea certificate (2003) and gold at the “Echa Bei” (鄂茶杯, 2006) competition.
- 2010. At the Shanghai International Tea Expo the factory’s flat “Bifeng” received gold.
- 2011. Status of a Wuhan “old brand” — in the first batch.
- 2013. Registration of the geographical indication certification mark.
- 2014–2015. The tea was included in the district intangible heritage list (2014), and the technique of making it in the city list (August 2015).
- 2021. On December 9 the Department of Commerce of Hubei Province recognized the tea as an “old brand of Hubei”.
- 2024. The technique entered the seventh provincial intangible heritage list of Hubei — in the extension list, item No. VIII-27 “Green tea making technique”.
- Lineage: The museum note counts five generations of masters, passed from teacher to student.
- Name: 城楼 (chénglóu) — the gate tower of a city wall, 寨 (zhài) — a mountain stronghold, 茶 (chá) — tea. The mountain and the tea were named after the stone fort.
- Cultural significance: The main local praise of the tea is the saying “steeped long, it does not turn red; kept long, it does not spoil” (久泡不变红，久放不变质). The museum note links it, according to legend, with a well in the Dragon King temple inside the fort: the water in it stayed at the same level all year round, and tea brewed with it supposedly did not darken for a long time.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: Not named for the mark. According to the museum note, in the 2010s the factory introduced clonal (无性系, wúxìngxì) varieties, without naming them, and expanded the gardens to 1200 mu.
- Old garden: According to the same note, a garden of 20 mu, planted back in the militia days, has survived in the ruins of the fort; there are no measurements of the bushes’ age.
- Raw material, standard and harvest time: No data in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Mount Chenglouzhai lies southeast of the center of Jiujie, on the border with Tuanfeng County, in the southern spurs of the Dabie Mountains (大别山, Dàbiéshān).
- Topography: Winding ridges, tiers of peaks and hollows. The fort is one of the “forty-eight forts of Qihuang” (蕲黄四十八寨) and a city-level monument; the neighboring Daolouzhai belongs to the same series.
- Growing altitude: 345 m — the highest point of Jiujie.
- Climate and soils: No data in the sources consulted.
5. Production Technology
Little is known from documents: the shape is flat, handmade tea is made in small amounts alongside machine-made tea, and the factory has a group that is restoring the handmade technique. Processing parameters are not found in the sources consulted.
The general scheme of flat green teas is as follows: spreading the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng), fixation in a pan (杀青, shāqīng), straightening (理条, lǐtiáo), flattening (压扁, yābiǎn), finishing and drying (辉锅, huīguō). This is the general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of Chénglóuzhài chá: the sources do not give its parameters.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
- Dry leaf appearance: Flat, straight and slender, smooth and even (扁平挺秀，光滑齐匀). The color is green with a yellowish tinge (绿中显黄), popularly called “the color of unpolished rice” (糙米色).
- Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: A lasting chestnut aroma (栗香持久) — as the press writes; the museum note has 粟香, “millet aroma”. Which spelling is correct cannot be decided from the sources consulted.
- Taste: Sweet, fresh and mellow (味甘鲜醇); a reference site writes — high, brisk, mellow and full (滋味高爽醇厚). The press and the museum note add that the aroma lingers in the mouth, and in the throat there is a sweet aftertaste (润喉回甘).
- Liquor color: Tender green and bright (汤色嫩绿明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Even (叶底匀一, in the press — 均一); no other details in the sources consulted.
7. Chemical Composition
Physicochemical data are not found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea. No specific recommendations are found in the sources consulted.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three further infusions.
9. Storage
Class practice for green tea. In airtight packaging, in the refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors; best drunk within a year.
10. Price and Counterfeits
According to the factory’s museum note, local green tea has risen in price from less than 200 to 600–800 yuan per jin (500 g), and local “white” tea from 800 to 1200–1800 yuan. These are prices for the tea of the area in general, not specifically for Chénglóuzhài chá, and the note does not give the year.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for geographical indication certification mark No. 10479862.
- Check that the producer is from Xinzhou District, Jiujie Subdistrict.
- The leaf is flat, straight, green with a yellowish tinge; the aroma is lasting; the liquor is tender green.
- Do not confuse it with the neighboring marks of the same subdistrict — Jiujie Baicha (旧街白茶) and Daolouzhai Baicha (刀楼寨白茶): these are different registrations.
11. Interesting Facts
- The tea was named not after a village or a river, but after a fortification.
- The old garden of 20 mu lies in the ruins of a fort that is itself listed as a monument.
- In 2019, according to the museum note, the factory supplied tea to the athletes’ village of the Military World Games in Wuhan.
12. Comparison with Neighboring and Related Teas
- Daolouzhai Baicha (刀楼寨白茶): A neighboring mark of the subdistrict (2017), also named after a mountain stronghold; its class is not established by any document.
- Jiujie Baicha (旧街白茶): The third mark of the same subdistrict; “white” in the name does not prove the class.
- Baiquan Lücha (柏泉绿茶): A flat green tea of Dongxihu District on the other edge of Wuhan — another protected tea within the city limits.
- Sanxia Long Jing (三峡龙井): A flat green tea of Yichang prefecture in the same province.
- Xi Hu Long Jing (西湖龙井): The main model of flat green tea; what they share is the shape of the leaf.
In Conclusion:
Chénglóuzhài chá is a flat green tea with a long local history: a 345 m mountain with a fort from the Taiping years, a factory since 1951, mark No. 10479862 since 2013, renewed for the factory until 2033, and the technique on the provincial heritage list since 2024. The mark itself was issued for “tea” without a class; it is the provincial heritage list that calls its technique green, and the descriptions of the leaf and the liquor agree with this.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page