---
title: "Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/donghe-bizhen-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá (董河碧珍茶)

*Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá* (董河碧珍茶) is a straight green tea from Sanhua Town (散花镇), Xishui County (浠水县), Huanggang prefecture-level city, in the east of Hubei Province. The name reads as “emerald treasure from Donghe”; Donghe is a village in the protection zone and a local tea farm. The gardens lie below 600 m around Mount Qingshi (青狮山), on the southern slope of Mount Jiangjiashan — a spur of the Dabie Mountains — between the Yangtze and Lake Cehu. The finished tea consists of thin, tight, straight leaves with exposed white down. In 2020 the name received an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI), and in 2025 it was included in the list of geographical indication products of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*), straight (直条形, *zhítiáoxíng*). The class is named in the description of the protected product itself: “董河碧珍茶属直条形绿茶” — “belongs to the straight green teas”.
* **Category:** A county green tea of Hubei; geographical indication product.
* **Origin:** China, Hubei Province (湖北, *Húběi*), Huanggang prefecture-level city (黄冈, *Huánggāng*), Xishui County (浠水, *Xīshuǐ*), Sanhua Town (散花, *Sànhuā*).
* **Protection zone:** According to a reference description — seven units of Sanhua Town: the villages of Donghe (董河村), Tianransi (天然寺村), Xinmiao (新庙村), Shayanghu (沙洋湖村), Yuefan (月畈村), Xianfeng (先丰村) and the Tianransi forestry farm (天然寺林场). The indication catalogue puts it more broadly — “the current administrative territory of Xishui County”; the discrepancy has not been checked against the text of the announcement.
* **Geographic coordinates:** According to a reference description — 30°16′30″–30°19′05″ N and 115°13′25″–115°15′46″ E.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Before 2020.** Information on the origin of the name, its first mentions and the founding of the Donghe farm was not found in the sources consulted.
    * **2020 — the agricultural indication.** On 19 May 2020 the portal *Jingchu Wang* (荆楚网) reported that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, by announcement No. 290, had issued agricultural product geographical indication certificates to nineteen Hubei products; *Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá* was among them. The registration number in the indication catalogue is AGI02944.
    * **Awards.** The county tourism portal calls the tea the winner of a special prize of the “national famous teas” competition (全国名优茶特等奖), but gives neither the year nor the organizer. *Hubei Ribao* in 2026 writes in general terms of “many provincial and national industry awards”, without listing them.
    * **2025 — the CNIPA list.** By announcement No. 640, signed on 16 July and published on 13 August 2025, the China National Intellectual Property Administration recognized 1,409 names as geographical indication products; the indication catalogue assigns *Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá* to this announcement.
    * **2026.** According to *Hubei Ribao*, on 26 May 2026 the tea was shown in Wuhan at the third exhibition and promotion of famous geographical indication products.
* **Name:** “Donghe” (董河) — the name of the village and of the tea farm; “bi” (碧) — emerald, blue-green; “zhen” (珍) — treasure.
* **Cultural significance:** *Hubei Ribao* calls the tea a characteristic famous product of the homeland of Wen Yiduo (闻一多).

**3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:**

* **Variety / Cultivar:** The variety is not named in the sources consulted.
* **Raw material:** One bud with one leaf or one bud with two barely unfolded leaves (一芽一叶或一芽二叶初展) — as stated in the description of the protected product.
* **Harvest time:** Exact dates were not found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The east of Hubei, by the Yangtze. According to a reference description, the zone borders Qichun County (蕲春县) to the east and Lanxi Town (兰溪镇) to the north; to the south lies Lake Cehu (策湖), and to the west flows the Yangtze. The zone measures 12 by 10 km, 40.3 km²; mountains occupy 38.5% of the area, hills 41.2%, river plains 20.3%.
* **Growing altitude:** Below 600 m — according to the description on the county tourism portal.
* **Climate:** According to the portal's description, the gardens are surrounded by water on three sides — the Yangtze, Lake Cehu, reservoirs. Mists give diffused light, and the water softens the winter: the daily temperature range is small, and the bushes suffer less from frost.
* **Soils:** Data were not found in the sources consulted.
* **Neighborhood:** According to a piece on the *Jingchu Wang* portal, the Donghe tea farm neighbors the Buddhist monastery of Tianransi (天然寺).
* **Scale:** According to a reference description, there are 200 ha under tea in the zone, and annual output is 150 t; the year of the data is not stated.
* **Ecological requirements:** The reference description ties the agricultural practices to the industry standards for “green food” (绿色食品) — NY/T 391-2013, NY/T 393-2013, NY/T 394-2013 and NY/T 288-2012. Highly toxic pesticides are prohibited, and the tea goes on sale only after testing for their residues.

**5. Production Technology:**

The description of the protected product says only that the tea is “processed by a special technology” (以特殊工艺加工制成). *Hubei Ribao* adds that the tea is processed using “advanced patented technologies and intelligent equipment” (先进的专利技术和智能化设备); which ones, the newspaper does not say. The sequence of operations and the parameters were not found in the sources consulted.

For a straight green tea, the usual sequence is as follows:

1.  **Spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, *tānfàng*).**
2.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** Heat stops oxidation.
3.  **Rolling and straightening (揉捻, *róuniǎn*; 理条, *lǐtiáo*).**
4.  **Drying (干燥, *gānzào*).**

This is the general scheme for the class, not a description of the technology of *Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá*.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The description below is from the description of the protected product in the indication catalogue; the county tourism portal repeats it and adds the taste.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Thin, tight, straight leaves (条索紧细), white down exposed (白毫显露), the batch uniform (均匀一致).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** Descriptions were not found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** Clean and lasting (持久清香).
* **Taste:** Refreshing, with a returning sweetness, long (爽口回甘，滋味绵长).
* **Liquor color:** Tender green and bright (嫩绿明亮).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Whole, green and bright, the buds evenly visible (完整绿亮，显芽均匀).

The *Jingchu Wang* portal (2020) describes the color of the leaf as emerald, the liquor as bright green, and the aroma as “deep, high and lasting” (香气幽高持久).

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The reference description of the product sets the following minimums:

| Indicator | Requirement |
| :--- | :--- |
| Extractives | not less than 40% |
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 16% |
| Free amino acids | not less than 2.8% |

The figures have not been checked against the text of the CNIPA requirements; there are no data on caffeine.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea.

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for green tea.

* **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 3 g per 150 ml.
* **Teaware:** A glass or a white gaiwan.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
    3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
    4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
    5. Top up with water.
    6. Two or three further infusions.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Best drunk within a year.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Price data were not found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the geographical indication mark on the packaging.
    * Check the origin: the indication catalogue names Xishui County as the zone, the reference description seven units of Sanhua Town.
    * The leaf is thin, tight and straight, with exposed white down; in the brewed leaf the buds are evenly visible.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The protection zone, according to the reference description, is about 40 km²: some ten kilometers in each direction between the Yangtze and Lake Cehu.
* In the ministry's 2020 announcement, five more Hubei teas received the indication along with it: the red tea Yichang Yihong (宜昌宜红), Tangya Cha ([唐崖茶](https://thetea.app/article/tangya-cha)), Baizhangtan Cha ([百丈潭茶](https://thetea.app/article/baizhangtan-cha)), Luotian Xianglu Cha ([罗田香露茶](https://thetea.app/article/luotian-xianglu-cha)) and Quxi Lücha ([曲溪绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/quxi-lucha)), and besides them — rapeseed, mugwort, lotus, pomelo and even loach fish.
* Xishui County is the birthplace of the poet Wen Yiduo, and the local press presents the tea as a famous product of his home district.

**13. Comparison with Other Green Teas of Huanggang and Hubei:**

* **Yingshan Yunwucha ([英山云雾茶](https://thetea.app/article/yingshan-yunwucha)):** A green tea of Yingshan County in the same prefecture, from the southern slopes of the Dabie Mountains; *Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá* grows on a spur of the same range, but below 600 m and near water.
* **Macheng Guishan Lücha ([麻城龟山绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/macheng-gui-shan-lucha)):** A mountain green tea of Mount Guifengshan in the Dabie Mountains, also Huanggang.
* **Luotian Xianglu Cha (罗田香露茶):** A flat green tea of Luotian County in the same prefecture; it received the indication in the same Hubei batch of 2020.
* **Caihua Maojian ([采花毛尖](https://thetea.app/article/caihua-mao-jian)):** The flagship green tea of western Hubei — for comparison with a tea from the eastern edge of the province.

**In Conclusion:**

*Dǒnghé bìzhēn chá* is a small green tea from Mount Qingshi by the Yangtze: thin, straight leaves with white down, a tender green liquor, a lasting clean aroma and a long sweetness. The documents speak of the zone, the appearance and the registration, but are silent on the variety, the harvest dates and the process chart.