---
title: "Měnghǎi Zhānglǎng chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/menghai-zhanglang-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Měnghǎi Zhānglǎng chá (勐海章朗茶)

*Měnghǎi Zhānglǎng chá* ([勐海](https://thetea.app/article/meng-hai)章朗茶) is a geographical mark for the tea of the Bulang village of Zhanglang (章朗) in the Bada area of Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Tea publications call Zhanglang the largest Bulang village of Xishuangbanna, where Bulang customs are best preserved; legend derives its name from the story of a white elephant. The document of the mark does not name the class of the product; descriptions speak of pu-erh from old trees.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Not established: the document of the mark does not name the class. The large-leaf raw material of Menghai goes above all into sheng pu-erh (生普, *shēngpǔ*), but also into red and white tea. Tea publications describe Zhanglang tea as pu-erh.
* **Category:** Tea of the old gardens of Menghai; geographical mark. The list does not specify its kind, and the press calls the county's marks certification marks (证明商标).
* **Origin:** China, Yunnan Province (云南, *Yúnnán*), Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (西双版纳, *Xīshuāngbǎnnà*), Menghai County (勐海县, *Měnghǎi Xiàn*), Xiding Township (西定哈尼族布朗族乡, *Xīdìng*), the village of Zhanglang — according to descriptions, south of the township center. Bada Township merged with Xiding in 2005.
* **Protection zone:** The list gives Menghai County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
* **Geographic coordinates:** Exact coordinates are not found in the sources consulted. Menghai County lies between 21°28′ and 22°28′ N and between 99°56′ and 100°41′ E; Bada is its western part, and to the west and south the county borders Myanmar.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Age of the village.** Descriptions give Zhanglang more than 1400 years — this, according to them, is what is recorded on a stele of the village temple. According to another account, the ancestors of the Bulang settled here about two thousand years ago and called the place Jingsang (景桑) — “where the ancestors lived”. I have not seen documents about either date.
    * **The legend of the white elephant.** It is retold by a plaque at the village White Elephant Temple (白象古寺). According to legend, 1365 years ago a disciple of the Buddha was traveling to preach on a white elephant. The elephant dug up the ground, and a spring gushed out — the “elephant well”; where the elephant lay down and began to nod its head, the disciple founded a temple and a village and named it Zhanglang — “the place where the elephant stopped”. Other descriptions retell the legend differently: the elephant was caught by an icy rain with hail, froze and could not go on, and the name is interpreted as “the village where the elephant froze”. The temple keeps more than a hundred scrolls of sutras on palm leaves (贝叶经, *bèiyèjīng*).
    * **Buddhism.** The essay that retells the inscription on the plaque writes that Theravada Buddhism became the common faith of the Bulang about two hundred years ago — which fits poorly with the legend of the ancient temple.
    * **The Menghai marks.** The umbrella mark “勐海茶” was filed in 2012 by the county tea center, registered in 2014 and put into use in 2016. In the list of Yunnan GI marks as of the end of 2019 it is followed by fifteen marks for mountains and villages, including “勐海章朗茶”. The press in 2022 speaks of sixteen marks of the county — the same number of tea marks Menghai has in the list if the umbrella mark is counted too.
* **Name:** According to the temple legend, “Zhanglang” (章朗) means “the place where the elephant stopped”; according to another retelling — “the village where the elephant froze”. “Menghai” (勐海) is the name of the county, “cha” (茶) means tea.
* **Cultural significance:** In Xishuangbanna it is commonly held that the Bulang were the first to plant tea here: where they lived, there are old gardens. In the Bulang “Song of the Ancestors” the ancestor-hero Bayanleng (叭岩冷) leaves his descendants huts and tea trees — “a staff for life”.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** Local large-leaf tea; the variety is not named in the sources consulted. Descriptions distinguish wild and cultivated old trees around the village: the wild ones grow in the forest around the village, the cultivated ones in patches among large forest trees.
* **Leaf:** Elliptic, with a convex surface, curved or folded inward, soft; the tip is gradually or caudately acuminate, the base cuneate. Descriptions name the leaf color differently: yellow-green or dark green.
* **Harvest:** Timing is not given in the sources consulted. The trees are tall: descriptions say that people climb bamboo ladders for the leaf, and one author describes how farmers climb the trees in the forest.
* **Harvest standard:** Not given in the sources consulted.
* **Raw material requirements:** I have not seen the requirements of the mark.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The Bada area in the west of Menghai County, near the border with Myanmar; the gardens surround the village and extend into the forest behind it.
* **Growing altitude:** Descriptions diverge: the village stands at **1330 m** or, according to other descriptions, above 1600 m.
* **Climate:** According to the description that gives an altitude of 1330 m — an average annual temperature of 21.5 °C, 1530 mm of precipitation a year. For the Bada area as a whole, descriptions give an average annual temperature of about 20 °C, and for neighboring Manmai — 126 foggy days a year.
* **Soils:** For the Bada area, descriptions name yellow-brown and yellow soils (黄棕壤、黄壤); there are no separate data for Zhanglang.
* **Area:** Estimates diverge: 500-odd mu, more than 700 mu (the largest gardens of Bada), or almost a thousand mu, most of which long stood abandoned. Descriptions estimate all the old gardens of Bada around Zhanglang, Manmaidui and Manpale at about 3451 mu.

**5. Production Technology:**

The technology of the tea under the mark is not described in the sources consulted. For sheng pu-erh from old trees the usual sequence is as follows:

1.  **Plucking (采摘, *cǎizhāi*).**
2.  **Cooling the leaf (摊晾, *tānliàng*).**
3.  **Fixation in a pan (杀青, *shāqīng*).**
4.  **Rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*).**
5.  **Sun drying (晒干, *shàigān*):** The result is loose maocha ([晒青](https://thetea.app/article/shai-qing)毛茶, *shàiqīng máochá*).
6.  **Pressing (紧压, *jǐnyā*):** Optional.

This is the general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of *Měnghǎi Zhānglǎng chá*.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The descriptions below are given by tea publications and sellers for pu-erh from the old trees of Zhanglang; no one has officially linked them to the product under the mark.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Tightly twisted, dark and glossy (条索紧结黑亮).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** A strong “mountain-forest” note (山野气强); the aroma, according to descriptions, lingers at the bottom of the cup. It is called floral and honeyed, bright and high (花蜜香显著而高扬), and in other records — with notes of plum and honey (梅子香、蜜香).
* **Taste:** Descriptions disagree. One: bitterness and astringency are noticeable, the liquor has sweetness, the “tea strength” is strong. Another: the liquor is delicate and full, soft and smooth, the bitterness strong, the astringency weak, the sweet return does not come at once but lasts long. A third compares the tea with that of Bulangshan: a light bitterness deep on the tongue and palate, the body rather watery, after the third infusion the liquor becomes softer, and a coolness remains on the tongue. Who is right cannot be established from the descriptions.
* **Liquor color:** Golden yellow, bright (汤色金黄明亮).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Yellow-green, even (叶底黄绿匀齐); in one record — yellow-green or yellow, soft and even, the buds with leaves remain on the stem.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

Physicochemical data are 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. The mark does not name the class; the guidelines below are for sheng pu-erh, which is how tea publications describe Zhanglang tea.

* **Water temperature:** 95–100 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 5–8 g per 110–150 ml.
* **Teaware:** Gaiwan or a clay teapot.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Add the tea; break pressed tea apart carefully, without crumbling the leaf.
    3. Briefly rinse the leaf with boiling water and pour it off.
    4. First infusions — 10–15 seconds.
    5. Pour out the liquor completely.
    6. Lengthen the time with each infusion.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. Sheng pu-erh is stored in a dry, clean, ventilated place away from light and foreign odors, in breathable packaging. Such tea changes over the years, and it is often aged on purpose.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the mark “勐海章朗茶” and check that the producer is from Menghai County.
    * Remember that the Bada area also has other marks — “[勐海贺松茶](https://thetea.app/article/menghai-hesong-cha)” and “[勐海巴达曼迈茶](https://thetea.app/article/menghai-bada-manmai-cha)”: “Bada tea” does not necessarily mean “Zhanglang tea”.
    * Compare the appearance with the descriptions: a dark, tight leaf, a golden-yellow liquor.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The name of the village, according to the temple legend, means “the place where the elephant stopped”, and the village has an “elephant well”.
* The White Elephant Temple keeps sutras on palm leaves.
* In the reference book of famous villages on which our encyclopedia relies, Bada is recorded together with Zhanglang, with the profile “mountain-forest character, density” (山野气, 厚).
* In the same Bada area, near the village of Hesong, grew a wild tea tree older than 1700 years; it fell in 2012.

**13. Comparison with Neighboring Teas:**

* **Menghai Bada Manmai Cha (勐海[巴达](https://thetea.app/article/qianjiazhai-bada)曼迈茶):** The mark of a neighboring Bulang village of the same Bada area.
* **Qianjiazhai and Bada (千家寨 · 巴达):** An article of our encyclopedia on wild patriarch trees; in it Bada is tied to Zhanglang.
* **Bulangshan ([布朗山](https://thetea.app/article/bu-lang-shan)):** A massif in the southeast of the county; one of the descriptions compares the taste of Zhanglang tea with it.
* **Menghai (勐海):** The county and the umbrella mark.

**In Conclusion:**

*Měnghǎi Zhānglǎng chá* is the mark of the largest Bulang village of Xishuangbanna, with the White Elephant Temple, sutras on palm leaves and old gardens in the forest. Little is known: an altitude of 1330 m or, according to other descriptions, above 1600 m, a golden-yellow liquor and a floral, honeyed aroma. The descriptions diverge on the taste, and the mark does not name the class of the product.