Liánpíng gāoshān chá

Liánpíng gāoshān chá (连平高山茶), “Lianping high-mountain tea”, is the common name for the teas of Lianping County (连平县), Heyuan prefecture-level city, in the north of Guangdong Province, in the Jiulianshan mountains. It is neither a variety nor a class: both green and red tea go under the name, mainly from the local Hakka population. In 2024 representatives of the tea growers approved this name by vote, to consolidate the assorted local names into one public brand, and the county is preparing a geographical indication certification mark for it. According to the county’s reply (November 2024), the application has not been filed and is awaiting funding; a 2026 register also lists it as a proposal.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: There is no single class. According to Nanfang+ (2018), local masters make mainly green or red tea from the leaf; the county is weighing group standards for both (section 5). “高山” — “high-mountain” — is a characteristic of the place, not of the technology.
Category: A county public brand and a proposed geographical indication certification mark (not filed).
Origin: China, Guangdong Province (广东, Guǎngdōng), Heyuan prefecture-level city (河源, Héyuán), Lianping County (连平, Liánpíng).
Proposed zone: The entire present territory of the county — as agreed by the county bureaus of agriculture, of natural resources and of forestry. The zone has been proposed but not approved.
Geographic coordinates: According to the county’s reply, 114°14′44″–114°56′51″ E and 24°05′48″–24°28′08″ N.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Old records. I have not seen early documents on Lianping tea. While preparing the mark, the county collected excerpts from “河源年鉴”, “连平县志” and “连平年鉴”, but does not quote them in its reply. According to Heyuan Wanbao (2024), until the 1970s only local tea seeds were planted in Jiulian, and from the 1970s the brigades began bringing in oolong varieties from other places. The name “连平高山茶” has appeared in the press since at least 2018 (Nanfang+).
- 2022. The county market regulation bureau began collecting materials on “高山茶”. According to a county publication in the spring of the same year, the tea belt forms a ring around the towns of Shangping (上坪), Yuanshan (元善), Beitou (陂头) and Youxi (油溪) along the Jiulianshan and Huangniushi ranges.
- 2023. The county surveyed the gardens, the old trees and the planting altitudes: most gardens, according to its reply, lie in the Jiulianshan mountains and “basically meet the criteria of high mountains”. An evaluation of the product for the future mark was compiled from chronicles and yearbooks.
- 2024 — the name. A review showed that the public brand had no single name, and that the standardized name had been mentioned in documents for less than three years. The county tea association gathered representatives of the tea growers, and “连平高山茶” was chosen by vote; the name was entered in “连平2023年鉴”. Three county bureaus agreed to the name, to the applicant — the county tea association — and to a zone covering the whole county.
- 2024 — money. The county is seeking to have the mark included in the prefecture’s support program and has applied for funds from Nanshan District of Shenzhen, Lianping’s partner in the paired-assistance program. As of 11 November 2024 there was no answer. All this information comes from the county’s reply to a proposal by a member of the county political consultative conference on a geographical indication brand for the tea industry.
Name: 连平 — the name of the county; 高山 — “high mountains”; 茶 — tea.
Cultural significance: The local press also calls the tea “连平客家高山茶” — “Lianping Hakka high-mountain tea”; Nanfang+ (2018) singles out the Hakka technology of pan-fired green tea.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Population: According to Nanfang+ (2018), the main bush is the Hakka population (客家群系种, Kèjiā qúnxìzhǒng). County publications also name other varieties: in 2022 — the local small-leaf bush, Meizhan (梅占, Méizhàn), Hongyan No. 12 (鸿雁12号, Hóngyàn shí’èr hào) and wild old trees; in 2023 — also Jinxuan (金萱, Jīnxuān) and Danxia No. 1 (丹霞1号, Dānxiá yī hào).
Old trees: According to Heyuan Wanbao (June 2024), in Neiguan town (内莞镇), Gaohu village, in the Cha’ao locality (茶垇), a grove of 18 large tree-like old tea bushes was found: trunks from 10 to 50 cm in diameter, a height of more than 10 m, the largest more than 20 m. According to a local tea grower, the grove was planted by a relative of his in his youth; the newspaper does not give the exact age. Tea is still picked from some of the bushes. The county intends to survey and register old tea trees and to create one or two gardens of “hundred-year trees”.
Harvest time: In the spring of 2022 a county publication for the Qingming festival (清明) reported on the spring tea harvest; according to a 2025 report, Lianping high-mountain tea is picked about 15 days later than lowland tea. There is no harvest standard; the county only proposes picking the leaf “reasonably and moderately” to suit the required class and combining hand picking with machine picking.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The north of Guangdong, the Jiulianshan mountains, the upper reaches of the Xinfengjiang River (新丰江) — according to Nanfang+ (2018); the same source says that the county has 79 peaks above 1000 m. The mountains run along the border of Guangdong and Jiangxi; the highest peak of the range, Huangniushi (黄牛石, 1430 m), stands on the provincial border.
Climate: Mid-subtropical monsoon: long summers and winters, short springs and autumns, mild temperatures, distinct seasons, plenty of sun and rain (Nanfang+, 2018).
Growing altitude: Measurements of the gardens are not found in the sources consulted. The county writes only that most gardens are “hidden in the high Jiulianshan mountains”; Nanfang+ (2018) defines high-mountain tea in general as tea from gardens above 800 m, but does not give the altitudes of the Lianping gardens.
Area and output: The figures change from year to year. According to a county publication in the spring of 2022 — about 20,000 mu, more than 600 t, about 180 million yuan. According to reports on the 2025 harvest-opening festival — more than 30,000 mu, 631.4 t, about 270 million yuan, more than 500 tea-growing farms.

5. Production Technology

The name has no single technology: Lianping makes both green and red tea. Nanfang+ (2018) singles out the Hakka technology of pan-fired green tea (客家炒青, Kèjiā chǎoqīng). The county intends to study how the group standards “卷曲形长炒青绿茶” (curled pan-fired green tea) and “客家中小叶种红茶产品标准” (red tea from Hakka small- and medium-leaf varieties) are applied in Lianping, and in time to write its own standards “连平（九连山）高山茶”. I have not seen the texts of these standards.

The general scheme of pan-fired green tea — not a description of this tea:

Withering (摊放, tānfàng).
Fixation in a wok (炒青杀青, chǎoqīng shāqīng).
Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
Drying with pan-firing (炒干, chǎogān).

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The name has no general description. Below is the description of Lianping high-mountain tea from Nanfang+ (2018); the article does not specify which class it refers to.

Dry leaf appearance: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: A rich natural floral aroma (自然花香浓郁), full and lasting (茶香饱满持久). The source does not specify whether it means the aroma of the dry leaf or of the liquor.
Taste: Sweet, mellow and full (滋味甘香醇厚), with a sweet return and salivation after swallowing (回甘生津).
Liquor color: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions found in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

No physico-chemical data found in the sources consulted. The county only intends to compare the composition of Lianping tea with that of ordinary green tea in order to find “special substances”.

8. Brewing

Class practice — the parameters depend on which tea you have in hand.

Green: 80–85 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion 40–60 seconds, glass tumbler or gaiwan, two or three further infusions.
Red: 90–95 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion about a minute, gaiwan or porcelain teapot, several infusions of increasing length.

9. 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.

10. Price and Counterfeits

No price data found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- A geographical mark “连平高山茶” does not yet exist: the application has not been filed.
- Check that the producer is from Lianping County, Heyuan prefecture-level city.
- “高山茶” without a place name is a generic word, not the name of this tea.

11. Interesting Facts

According to Heyuan Wanbao (2024), the largest leaf of the old bushes in the Neiguan grove reaches 25 cm in length.
The name was chosen by a vote of tea growers and immediately entered in the county yearbook: the county itself noted that the standardized name had been mentioned in documents for less than three years, and considered this an obstacle to the mark.
The first county festival marking the start of the spring tea harvest was held on 3 April 2025 in a garden of Dabu village (大埠), Yuanshan town.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

Kanghe Cha (康禾茶): A green tea of Dongyuan County in the same Heyuan prefecture, historically supplied to the court.
Shangguan Xian Hu Cha (上莞仙湖茶): A green tea of the Xianhu mountain massif in Heyuan prefecture, made by the old technology of pan-fired green tea.
Zijin Hong Cha (紫金红茶): A red tea of Zijin County in the same prefecture.
Huidong Lü Cha (惠东绿茶): A green tea of Huidong County, Huizhou prefecture, also in the Hakka pan-firing tradition.

In Conclusion:

Liánpíng gāoshān chá is a name the county is only now assembling: a vote of tea growers, an entry in the yearbook, the bureaus’ agreement to a zone covering the whole county, and a search for money for the application. Behind it stands the mountain tea of Lianping — green and red, mainly from the local Hakka population, with a grove of old trees in Neiguan — but there is not yet a standard that would describe its appearance, and “high-mountain” on the packaging speaks of the place, not of quality.