---
title: "Jiāngxià Guāngmíng chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/jiangxia-guangming-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Jiāngxià Guāngmíng chá (江夏光明茶)

*Jiāngxià Guāngmíng chá* (江夏光明茶) is a green tea of four villages of Shanpo subdistrict (山坡街), Jiangxia District, in the south of Wuhan, Hubei Province. “Guangming” (光明, “light”) here is not a quality of the tea but the name of the village where the main garden stands — on the shore of Liangzi Lake (梁子湖), by Mount Tianzishan (天子山). Since 2018 the name has been protected as an agricultural product geographical indication, and since 2025 as a geographical indication product.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*). The 2025 protection requirements do not name the class in words, but they set green tea technology — with fixation, without withering for oxidation and without sealed yellowing. The Wuhan agricultural administration also describes it as a green tea.
* **Category:** Green tea of the lakeside hills of southern Wuhan; agricultural product geographical indication (2018) and geographical indication product (2025).
* **Origin:** China, Hubei Province (湖北, *Húběi*), Wuhan city (武汉, *Wǔhàn*), Jiangxia District (江夏, *Jiāngxià*), Shanpo subdistrict (山坡, *Shānpō*).
* **Protection zone:** Four villages of Shanpo subdistrict — Guangming (光明村), Guangxing (光星村), Guanghua (光华村) and Shangqiao (尚桥村). The applicant is the Guangming Tea Association of Shanpo subdistrict (武汉市江夏区山坡街光明茶叶协会).
* **Geographic coordinates:** 114°01′–114°35′ E, 29°58′–30°32′ N — according to the 2025 announcement. For four villages the rectangle is unusually wide; the document gives no explanation.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **1970s.** According to the Wuhan agricultural administration, the villagers made tea as a cottage craft, over a wood fire. The producing company traces its history to the Guangming No. 2 tea factory (原光明二茶场), built in 1972.
    * **After the start of the reforms.** The old local bushes — about a hundred *mu* — were replaced with improved varieties.
    * **1986.** The county chronicle “武昌县情” (1986–1990), as retold by the administration, writes that from 1986 the green tea of the Guangming farm received the provincial title of quality product several years running. The company specifies that it was four years, and that the teas were called “[碧螺春](https://thetea.app/article/biluochun)” and the autumn “龙井”. The name “江夏光明茶” did not yet exist — the brand was launched only in 2006.
    * **1993.** According to a seller’s trade page, the “翠毫” tea of the Guangming farm received the top award of the provincial autumn famous tea competition; no other confirmation was found in the sources consulted.
    * **2006.** With the support of the local authorities, a tea association was set up in Guangming village, and it launched the brand “江夏光明茶”.
    * **2018.** In February — the national agricultural product geographical indication (number AGI02321). The trade page also gives November 2017; official sources give 2018. The trademark “江夏光明茶”, according to the same trade page, was registered in November 2018.
    * **2019.** Tea supplier to the athletes’ village of the 7th Military World Games.
    * **2020.** According to the trade page, the green “翠毫” of the “光明” brand received a gold award at the 21st “green” products expo.
    * **2025.** By announcement No. 640 of 16 July 2025 (published on 13 August), the China National Intellectual Property Administration recognized the name as a geographical indication product. According to reports from Wuhan, this is part of the transfer of the former agricultural indications into a unified system; in the same announcement the city has eighteen products.
* **Name:** “Jiangxia” (江夏) is the name of the district; “Guangming” (光明) is the name of the village. Two other villages of the zone, Guangxing and Guanghua, begin with the same character 光.
* **Cultural significance:** The Wuhan administration (2023) calls the head tea master a third-generation bearer of the intangible heritage of *Jiāngxià Guāngmíng chá*; according to the company’s website, the tea was recognized as intangible cultural heritage by the culture bureau of Jiangxia District. The tea is part of the city brand “江城百臻”. According to the same administration, the products hold a “green food” certificate (绿色食品, *lǜsè shípǐn*); the trade page dates such certificates for the “光明” green and red teas to November 2017.

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

* **Varieties / Cultivars:** According to the protection requirements — 中茶108 (*Zhōngchá 108*), 福鼎大白茶 (*Fúdǐng dàbáichá*), 鄂茶一号 (*Èchá 1*) and others.
* **Harvest standard:** The requirements name grades of fresh leaf: a single bud (单芽, *dānyá*), a bud with one leaf where the bud is longer than the leaf, a bud with one leaf of equal length, and others. Picking is to be done in good time and in batches — according to which dry tea and which quality grade is being made.
* **Shoot weight:** One hundred “bud with leaf” shoots weigh about 8.5 g — this figure is written directly in the requirements.
* **Harvest time:** No exact dates found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The lakeside hills in the south of Wuhan. In an article by the Wuhan agricultural administration (2022), the head of one of the local companies says that its tea base lies where Mount Tianzishan, Liangzi Lake and Shanpo Lake (山坡湖) meet. According to another article by the same administration (2023), the tea farm by Liangzi Lake is shrouded in mist almost all year round.
* **Growing altitude:** No data found in the sources consulted.
* **Soils:** According to the protection requirements — a thick profile, a plow layer thicker than 50 cm, organic matter in the plow horizon more than 1 %, pH 4.7–6.0. An article in the Baidu online encyclopedia speaks of red soils with pH 4.7–6.5; the discrepancy in the upper limit remains.
* **Climate:** According to the same encyclopedia article — humid monsoon: an annual average of 16.8 °C, 1347.7 mm of precipitation, 268 frost-free days. It was not possible to check these figures against the primary source.
* **Cultivation practices under the requirements:** In spring and summer — shallow tillage, before winter — deep; basal fertilizer application, top dressing and foliar feeding; protection — agronomic, biological and physical.
* **Scale:** According to a 2022 report, the producing company has more than 300 *mu* of its own gardens, covers more than a thousand further *mu* as a partner, and about five hundred farm households are involved in the work. Processing capacity, according to the company’s website, is 50 t a year. These are the data of one company, not of the whole protection zone.

**5. Production Technology:**

The protection requirements set the following chain:

1.  **Spreading of fresh leaf (摊放, *tānfàng*).**
2.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*).**
3.  **Cooling (摊凉, *tānliáng*).**
4.  **Straightening of the leaf (理条, *lǐtiáo*).**
5.  **Pan-firing to a luster (辉炒, *huīchǎo*).**
6.  **Final drying with aroma development (足干, *zúgān*; 提香, *tíxiāng*).**
7.  **Sorting (精选, *jīngxuǎn*).**

The document gives no temperatures or times. According to the Wuhan administration (2023), the farm keeps a semi-manual, semi-mechanical scheme: manual work preserves the craft, while machines remove its weaknesses — low productivity and uneven leaf thickness.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Fine, slender twisted strands (条索纤细), green color with an oily luster (色泽绿润), white down visible (白毫显露).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No separate description found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** According to the company — elegant (气味清雅). The Wuhan administration writes of a subtle, deep aroma (香幽), without specifying whether of the dry leaf or the liquor.
* **Taste:** According to the administration — the liquor is fresh and clean, the aftertaste lingers long in the mouth. The company writes of a fresh, brisk taste with a sweet aftertaste (鲜爽回甘).
* **Liquor color:** According to the company — clear, moderately strong (汤色透明，浓淡相宜); it also promises the “three greens” (三绿): green dry leaf, green liquor and green brewed leaf.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Tender green (叶底嫩绿) — according to the protection requirements.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The protection requirements set lower thresholds for three indicators:

| Indicator | Requirement |
| :--- | :--- |
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 17 % |
| Free amino acids | not less than 4 % |
| Water-soluble extractives | not less than 40 % |

These are norms, not a batch measurement. Data on caffeine and other substances were not found in the sources consulted.

**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. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
    4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
    5. Top up with water.
    6. Two or three repeat 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 product mark or the agricultural indication mark.
    * Check that the tea was made in one of the four villages of Shanpo subdistrict, and not just in Jiangxia District.
    * The leaf is fine, green with a luster, with visible down; the brewed leaf is tender green.
    * Remember that the farms of the zone also produce other teas: according to an article on the website of the Wuhan administration, one of the companies makes a yellow tea, “[安吉白茶](https://thetea.app/article/anji-baicha)” and the red “[金骏眉](https://thetea.app/article/jin-jun-mei)”. The protection requirements describe only the green tea.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* Before it had its own name, the tea of the Guangming farm received provincial quality titles under other names — “碧螺春” and the autumn “龙井”.
* The amino acid threshold of 4 % is the highest among the three Wuhan teas of the 2025 announcement: for Jiangxia Bifang it is 1.8 %, for Baiquan Lücha 2.8 %.
* The “white tea” of one of the local companies, according to the description of the Wuhan administration, goes through withering, fixation, rolling and drying; fixation and rolling are techniques of green tea, not of white tea.

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

* **Jiangxia Bifang ([江夏碧舫](https://thetea.app/article/jiangxia-bifang)):** A flat green tea of the same district, from Wulongquan subdistrict; protected by the same 2025 announcement.
* **Baiquan Lücha ([柏泉绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/baiquan-lucha)):** A flat green tea of Dongxihu District in the northwest of Wuhan, also from the 2025 announcement.
* **Huangpi Lücha ([黄陂绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/huangpi-lucha)):** A green tea of northern Wuhan.
* **Biluochun (碧螺春):** A twisted green tea from Jiangsu, under whose name the Guangming farm produced tea in the 1980s.

**In Conclusion:**

*Jiāngxià Guāngmíng chá* is a green tea of four villages by Liangzi Lake, grown out of a cottage factory of the 1970s that received provincial quality titles under other names. The brand got its own name in 2006, and protection in 2018 and 2025. The documents depict it precisely: fine twisted strands, a green leaf with a luster and visible down, a tender green brewed leaf and a high amino acid threshold.