---
title: "Nàyōng gāoshān chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/nayong-gaoshan-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Nàyōng gāoshān chá (纳雍高山茶)

*Nàyōng gāoshān chá* (纳雍[高山茶](https://thetea.app/article/gao-shan-cha)) is a county public brand and a geographical indication certification mark for the tea of Nayong County (纳雍县) of Bijie prefecture-level city in the west of Guizhou Province. *Gāoshān* (高山) means “high-mountain”: the word describes the place, not the class. According to the provincial summary table, the mark was approved on 28 August 2018; the applicant is the county agricultural technology extension station. Brands of different companies and more than one class go under the common name: in 2019, according to the provincial newspaper, the county produced 1890 t of green and 877 t of red tea.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** There is no single class. For the green part there is a definition: the county agriculture bureau, presenting the brand on the “Map of Good Green Tea of China” (2024), defined “纳雍高山绿茶” as the green tea of the county from young shoots of small- and medium-leaf bushes, with a “high, lasting aroma and a mellow, fresh taste” (香高持久，味醇鲜爽). But under the common name there is also red tea — for example, “雾岭红” and “玄羽红茶” — so I do not assign the green class to the umbrella.
* **Category:** County public brand (区域公用品牌, *qūyù gōngyòng pǐnpái*) and geographical indication certification mark (2018).
* **Origin:** China, Guizhou Province (贵州, *Guìzhōu*), Bijie prefecture-level city (毕节, *Bìjié*), Nayong County (纳雍, *Nàyōng*).
* **Zone of the mark:** The county is the administrative affiliation of the holder; I have not seen a legal boundary of the zone.
* **Geographic coordinates:** The county seat — about 26°47′ N and 105°25′ E (according to Wikipedia).

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **The tribute legend.** The newspaper *Guizhou Ribao* (贵州日报, March 2020) quotes a line from the *General Gazetteer of Guizhou* (贵州通志, *Guìzhōu tōngzhì*): “平远府茶产岩间，以法制之，味亦佳” — “the tea of Pingyuan prefecture grows among the rocks; it is processed according to the rules, and its taste is also good”. The newspaper attributes these words to the tea of Guqing village (姑箐村) of Shuidong town and writes that it was a tribute tea as early as the Ming and Qing; the county bureau in 2024 repeats this about “姑箐贡茶”. I have not seen the *Gazetteer* itself.
    * **1972.** According to the official account of Bijie prefecture (April 2023), from this year the county began to grow tea on a large scale.
    * **2009 and 2014.** According to the newspaper, from 2009 the county was listed for nine years running as a “key tea-producing county of the country”, and in 2014 as one of the “ten homelands of old tea trees of Guizhou”.
    * **2010.** The China Tea Marketing Association (中国茶叶流通协会) awarded Nayong the title of “homeland of high-mountain ecological tea”. The prefecture’s account writes it as “中国高山生态[有机茶](https://thetea.app/article/youji-cha)之乡”, with the word “organic”, the newspaper as “中国高山[生态茶](https://thetea.app/article/shengtai-cha)之乡”, without it.
    * **2018 — the mark.** In the summary table of geographical trademarks attached to the notice of the Guizhou intellectual property bureau of 22 August 2022 (I read it in a reprint on the Panzhou portal), the applicant of the mark is 纳雍县农业技术推广站, and the date of approval is 28 August 2018. I did not find the number of the mark and did not check its validity.
    * **2018–2020 — sales.** According to the newspaper, on 30 June 2018 a “纳雍高山茶” experience center opened in Harbin, and over the following two years several dozen brand and model stores opened in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Guiyang and other cities.
    * **Awards.** The newspaper lists prizes of the provincial competitions “黔茶杯” and “太极杯” and the national “中茶杯” since 2013, and in November 2019 a gold at a world red tea competition for “玄羽红茶” of the “彝岭苗山” brand. The newspaper credits them to “纳雍高山茶” as a whole; the brand and the product are named only for the last award.
* **Name:** 纳雍 — the name of the county; 高山 — “high mountains”; 茶 — “tea”.
* **Cultural significance:** For the 2020 newspaper, tea is one of the county’s leading industries in the fight against poverty, and the brand is a way to gather the brands of different companies under a single mark.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** For green tea — “small- and medium-leaf bushes” (中小[叶种](https://thetea.app/article/qiaomuguanmu)茶树), without names of varieties. The prefecture’s account mentions funds for spreading the 黔茶1号 (*Qiánchá 1*) variety throughout Bijie; this is not said of the raw material of Nayong.
* **Old trees:** A feature on the *Renmin Wang* portal (May 2023) counts more than 800 old “平远府茶” tea trees in Shuidong town, a feature in the prefecture’s magazine *Bijie Shiyanqu* (毕节试验区, November 2024) — more than 1000 in Guqing village, according to the agricultural authorities. Whether their leaf goes into the product is not said; according to the 2024 feature, the method of processing the tribute tea has been lost.
* **Raw material:** For green tea — young tender shoots (幼嫩新梢).
* **Harvest time:** The prefecture’s account writes of picking spring tea around the Qingming festival. No harvest standard found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** Western Guizhou. According to the prefecture’s account — the transition from the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the hills of the southwest: steep slopes, large differences in elevation, the climate changes with altitude.
* **Climate and soils:** The county formula is “low latitude, high altitude, little sunshine, much cloud and fog, a short frost period” (低纬度、高海拔、寡日照、多云雾、少霜期) and soils “yellow, the color of horse blood, thick, rich in elements” (黄土地、马血泥、厚土层、多元素). There are no figures.
* **Altitude:** There are no altitude limits for the zone. According to the *Renmin Wang* feature (2023), the county’s tea grows mainly at around 1800 m, and a company garden in Zongling town at 2300 m; it is called the highest-altitude organic tea garden in the country. The prefecture’s account calls this mountain Shanshenqing (山神箐), the 2024 feature calls it Shenqing (神箐大山) and places the garden near Pingqing village (坪箐村).
* **Garden area:** The data diverge. The 2020 newspaper writes of nearly 200,000 mu of standard gardens, of which nearly 100,000 mu are productive. The prefecture’s account in 2023 gives 165,600 mu of gardens, 73,000 mu productive and 17,000 mu standardized, mainly in the towns of Zongling, Gukai, Dongdi, Huazuo and Longchang.

**5. Production Technology:**

There is no single technology for the umbrella. For green tea the county bureau names three forms: flat (扁形), curled (卷曲形) and granular (颗粒形); among the representative products are 纳雍高山雪芽, 纳雍高山龙井, 纳雍高山翠剑 and 纳雍高山[毛峰](https://thetea.app/article/maofengcha). The newspaper writes of a “unified technology” of the brand, but I have not seen a standard.

According to the prefecture’s account (2023), the company that runs the garden in Zongling holds 7000 mu of gardens with Chinese and European organic certification and three lines — green, red and white tea.

General schemes of the classes, not a description of this tea: green — fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*), rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*), drying; red — withering (萎凋, *wěidiāo*), rolling, fermentation (发酵, *fājiào*), drying.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

Short descriptions exist only for green tea.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Flat, curled or granular — depending on the form of the product.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** High and lasting (香高持久) — according to the definition of the green tea.
* **Taste:** Mellow and fresh (味醇鲜爽); the 2020 newspaper adds — mellow, aromatic, with a sweet aftertaste (滋味醇香、回味甘甜).
* **Liquor color:** Bright (汤色明亮) — according to the newspaper, of the green tea of Nayong.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No descriptions found in the sources consulted.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

No physicochemical data 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 parameters depend on which tea under this name is in your hands.

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

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. Green tea — in airtight packaging, in a 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.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No data on retail prices found in the sources consulted. According to the 2020 newspaper, in 2019 the county sold 1890.6 t of tea outside its borders for 707 million yuan.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the geographical indication certification mark “纳雍高山茶” next to the company’s brand.
    * Check that the producer is from Nayong County.
    * Clarify the class: the name does not state it, and both green and red tea go under the brand.
    * Do not confuse it with “high-mountain” marks of other provinces.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* Brands of different companies appear under one name — the newspaper lists 府茗香, 含露雾香, 云雾翠芽 and 彝岭苗山.
* The tea farm of the company in Zongling, according to the newspaper, received the title “Beautiful Tea Garden of China” (中国美丽茶园) in 2019.
* The Harbin center for Nayong tea opened two months before the approval of the mark itself.

**13. Comparison with Other Teas:**

* **Jinsha Gong Cha ([金沙贡茶](https://thetea.app/article/jinsha-gongcha)):** A green tea of Jinsha County of the same Bijie prefecture, also with a history of tribute.
* **Haima Gong Cha ([海马宫茶](https://thetea.app/article/haima-gong-cha)):** A yellow tea of Dafang County of Bijie prefecture.
* **Shouning Gaoshan Cha ([寿宁高山茶](https://thetea.app/article/shouning-gaoshan-cha)):** A Fujian “high-mountain” protected name, also over two classes — red and green.
* **Gao Shan Cha (高山茶):** The general concept of high-mountain tea, not the mark of a single county.

**In Conclusion:**

*Nàyōng gāoshān chá* is a 2018 county mark over the brands of different companies and over two classes, green and red. For the green part there is a definition — tender shoots of small- and medium-leaf bushes, a high lasting aroma, a mellow fresh taste — while the red part so far has only awards. The gardens rise to 2300 m, and the legend of the tribute from Guqing village is known only from a newspaper retelling of an old chronicle.