---
title: "Gǔpá chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/gupa-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Gǔpá chá (古琶茶)

*Gǔpá chá* (古琶茶) is a green tea from Miaohuang Township (妙皇乡) of Xiangzhou County (象州县), Laibin prefecture-level city, in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from the hills at the western foot of the Dayaoshan Mountains. It takes its name from the village of Gupa (古琶村), which belongs to the Sigao village committee (思高村委). The name has been protected since 2020 as an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI); in 2025 the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recognized it as a geographical indication product, and since 2021 its production technique has been on the autonomous region's list of intangible heritage.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*). The word “绿茶” does not appear in the protection document; the class follows from the technology — spreading, fixation, rolling, shaping, drying, with no withering and no fermentation — and from the appearance: a green leaf, and a yellow-green liquor and spent leaves.
* **Category:** Guangxi green tea; agricultural product geographical indication (2020) and geographical indication product (CNIPA, announcement No. 640, 2025).
* **Origin:** China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (广西, *Guǎngxī*), Laibin prefecture-level city (来宾, *Láibīn*), Xiangzhou County (象州, *Xiàngzhōu*), Miaohuang Township (妙皇, *Miàohuáng*).
* **Protection zone:** 12 administrative villages of Miaohuang Township: Dasuo (大梭村), Pangu (盘古村), Longtou (龙头村), Xinzao (新造村), Lu (路村), Liao (寮村), Miaohuang (妙皇村), Shanding (山定村), Huahou (花侯村), Tangtou (塘头村), Qiaotou (桥头村) and Sigao (思高村). The applicant is the Xiangzhou County technical guidance station for industrial crops. According to the description of the agricultural indication, the protected area is 1,000 ha and the protected volume is 1,100 t of dry tea.
* **Geographic coordinates:** 109°41′–109°51′ E, 23°44′–23°56′ N — according to the protection document.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Tang.** A 2024 publication traces the history of the tea back to the Tang era and quotes Lu Yu's *The Classic of Tea* (《茶经》): “象州茶，往往得之，其味极佳” — “the tea of Xiangzhou is found here and there; its taste is excellent”; this is the publication's paraphrase, not a verbatim line of the classic. The words refer to the Tang prefecture of Xiangzhou as a whole; the village of Gupa is not named in them.
    * **Ming.** According to a report by the county agriculture bureau (2024) and a story in *Laibin Ribao* (2020), tea began to be grown here at the beginning of the Ming and was dried by hand in a pan. The same story retells a local version: at the end of the Ming, descendants of the Prince of Jingjiang (靖江王) of the Zhu clan settled in Nalu (纳禄) in Xiangzhou County and drank the local tea every day, and under the Qing the tea was presented to the court. Documents on tribute were not found in the materials consulted.
    * **Different datings.** The introduction of the same story speaks of “more than 200 years” of tea history in Gupa, while the family tradition of one of the village's clans, retold by a reference book of local products, speaks of ancestors from Xishan near Guiping (桂平西山) who came at the end of the Ming, and of more than 400 years. Which figure is more accurate cannot be established from the sources consulted.
    * **2018–2020.** At the end of 2018 a new tea factory was built in Sigao; in 2020 the village committee invested 100,000 yuan in it. In May 2020 the name received an agricultural product geographical indication.
    * **2021.** The production technique of Xiangzhou *Gǔpá chá* (象州古琶茶) was entered in the autonomous region's list of intangible cultural heritage (according to a report by the county agriculture bureau, 2024).
    * **2023.** The Guangxi Standardization Association issued the group standard T/GXAS 670—2023 “地理标志农产品 古琶茶”. The text of the standard was not found in the sources consulted.
    * **2024.** On 10 August the China Central Television program “Intangible Heritage in China” (《非遗里的中国》) showed *Gǔpá chá* in an episode about Guangxi. According to a publication about this episode, the gardens cover almost 3,000 *mu*, more than 200 households are involved in the industry, the tea is picked in all four seasons, and annual output exceeds 30 million yuan.
    * **2025.** CNIPA announcement No. 640 (signed 16 July, published 13 August) recognized the name as a geographical indication product — item 1144 of 1409.
* **Name:** 古琶 (*Gǔpá*) — the village of Gupa; 茶 — tea. A local saying quoted by *Laibin Ribao* (2020): “古朴出美女，古琶出好茶”; its second half means “Gupa gives good tea”.
* **Cultural significance:** According to a 2024 publication, a tourist camp and excursions with tea picking and processing have been set up around the Sigao gardens, and the county has released more than ten products based on this tea — from cookies with a tea filling (茶蓉饼) to lemon tea and milk tea. According to a 2021 county report, the tea is sold in Guangdong, Hunan, Anhui and Hebei, and for the township's farmers it is a source of income.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** According to the document — “古琶茶地方[群体种](https://thetea.app/article/qunti-zhong)”, the local population of *Gǔpá chá*. The document names no bred cultivars.
* **Bud color:** According to a 2024 publication, the buds can be green, violet or purplish-red; the violet color is the result of leaf pigmentation (紫化). In a 2020 story, the entrepreneur who built the factory in Sigao says the purple bud ([紫芽](https://thetea.app/article/ziya-zijuan-puer)) is considered the best raw material. The same story reports that Sigao then had 40 *mu* of transplanted purple-bud tea, and that a century-old tea tree grew by one of the village's houses.
* **Harvest:** According to the document — by season and in batches, by hand, with a “lifting” motion of the fingers (提采); the leaf is fresh, whole and even, without fruit, old leaves or stems. The best raw material is a bud with one leaf (一芽一叶), good raw material a bud with two leaves.
* **Planting:** Along contour lines in one or two rows — about 5,000 bushes per *mu*, on terraces about 7,000; light and deep pruning alternate.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** Central Guangxi, the western foot of the Dayaoshan Mountains (大瑶山, *Dàyáo shān*); the Sigao gardens lie by Mount Tiangaishan (天盖山), where, according to a county report, there is often fog.
* **Growing altitude:** Hills at an altitude of **300–600 m** — according to the description of the agricultural indication.
* **Climate:** South subtropical humid monsoon. Sunshine is about 1,650 hours a year, the mean temperature 20.8 °C, the frost-free period more than 330 days, precipitation about 1,400 mm, relative humidity 77%. The indication description links the large daily temperature range with a high content of amino acids and a relatively low content of caffeine.
* **Soils:** Mainly red (红壤), with organic matter averaging about 45 g/kg, pH 4.5–5.5 — according to the indication description. The CNIPA document sets a broader requirement for the plot: pH 4.5–6.5, well-drained open slopes sheltered from the wind; on slopes up to 20°, planting along contour lines, at 20–30°, terraces.
* **Water source:** Irrigation with spring water from the Dayaoshan water conservation forest reserve and with rainwater.

**5. Production Technology:**

The protection document sets out semi-mechanized processing: 鲜叶 → 摊放 → 杀青 → 揉捻 → 做形 → 烘干 → 提香. This is a description of this particular tea.

1.  **Spreading (摊放, *tānfàng*):** In special containers — 6–8 hours in spring, 3–4 hours in summer and autumn, until the leaf becomes soft, a clean aroma appears and the moisture drops to about 70%.
2.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** A drum machine, 260–280 °C; tender leaf in clear weather — about 4 minutes; coarse, rain-wet or dewy leaf — about 5 minutes; residual moisture about 55%.
3.  **Rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*):** A roller, 15–25 minutes. For top-grade and first-grade raw material more than 80% of the leaf must curl into strands, for second grade more than 60%, with sap coming out.
4.  **Shaping (做形, *zuòxíng*):** In a drum at 120–180 °C for about 6 minutes, until the aroma emerges and the leaf curves slightly.
5.  **Drying (烘干, *hōnggān*):** The dryer is preheated to 100–120 °C, and the leaf is dried to a moisture content of 6–8%, until it crumbles into powder between the fingers.
6.  **Aroma finishing (提香, *tíxiāng*):** A roasting machine, 90 °C, about 40 minutes, to a moisture content below 6%.

The keeper of the technique named on the heritage list describes manual processing as follows: a bud with one leaf, spreading, fixation at high heat as the key stage, hand rolling, drying with aroma finishing.

Under the “象州古琶” brand both red and white tea are produced, including a red tea from violet buds (紫芽象州古琶红茶); the protection document describes only the green tea.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

According to the protection document:

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Tightly rolled, green, downy (条索紧结，色绿有毫).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** A separate description was not found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** Rich, with a floral note (香气浓、有花香).
* **Taste:** Sweetish and mellow (滋味甘醇).
* **Liquor color:** Yellow-green, bright (汤色黄绿亮).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Yellow-green (叶底黄绿).

The red tea from violet buds, which the document does not cover, is described by the 2024 publication as follows: a red liquor with a slight blue-violet tint, downy buds, a lasting aroma.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

Physico-chemical requirements of the protection document:

| Indicator | Requirement |
| :--- | :--- |
| Caffeine | not less than 2% |
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 20% |
| Water-soluble extractives | not less than 40% |
| Free amino acids, total | not less than 4% |

These are the document's norms, not measurements of specific batches. The description of the agricultural indication also requires compliance with the national standards GB 2762 (contaminants) and GB 2763 (pesticide residues).

**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 tumbler or a white gaiwan.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
    3. The first infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
    4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
    5. 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; drink within a year.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Prices of the finished tea were not found in the sources consulted. According to a 2024 county report, the company bought fresh leaf from farmers at 80 yuan per jin (500 g) of single buds and 15 yuan per jin of buds with one leaf.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the special geographical indication mark: a producer from the zone obtains the right to it through the intellectual property office of Xiangzhou County, the Guangxi administration and CNIPA.
    * Check the origin: one of the 12 villages of Miaohuang Township.
    * Remember that “古琶” is the name of a village, not of a class: the red and white teas under this brand are not described by the protection document.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The protection document gives no grading scale, but in its rolling rules it divides the raw material into top, first and second grade.
* Fixation under the document takes place at 260–280 °C, while aroma finishing is done at only 90 °C.
* The threshold for free amino acids is not less than 4%, higher than for the red tea Muzi Apo Cha ([木梓阿婆茶](https://thetea.app/article/muzi-apo-cha)) from the same announcement No. 640 (more than 2.5%).

**13. Comparison with Other Guangxi Teas:**

* **Jinxiu Hongcha ([金秀红茶](https://thetea.app/article/jinxiu-hongcha)):** A red tea from the Dayaoshan Mountains in the same Laibin prefecture-level city; *Gǔpá chá* grows at the western foot of the same mountains.
* **Xishan Cha ([西山茶](https://thetea.app/article/xishan-cha)):** A green tea from Guiping; according to family tradition, the ancestors of one of the clans of Gupa village came from near Xishan.
* **Muzi Apo Cha (木梓阿婆茶):** A red tea from Guigang prefecture from the same announcement No. 640.

**In Conclusion:**

*Gǔpá chá* is a green tea from the twelve villages of Miaohuang Township at the western foot of the Dayaoshan Mountains, made from a local population of bushes with green and violet buds. The protection document sets out a semi-mechanized technology with its parameters and an appearance — a tight green downy leaf, a yellow-green liquor, a floral aroma. It is protected in three layers: the 2020 indication, the 2021 heritage status of the technique and the 2025 CNIPA recognition; its early history rests on retellings with diverging dates.