---
title: "Zhènyuán Kǎnpénqìng chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/zhenyuan-kanpenqing-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Zhènyuán Kǎnpénqìng chá (镇沅砍盆箐茶)

*Zhènyuán Kǎnpénqìng chá* (镇沅砍盆箐茶) is a geographical indication mark for the tea of Kanpenqing village (砍盆箐), Wenkuang village committee (文况村), Mengda Town, Zhenyuan County, Pu'er prefecture-level city, Yunnan Province. The village stands on a slope in the Wuliangshan mountains (无量山), amid forest; around it are old tea trees, 896 of which are counted individually. The county lists Kanpenqing among its eight tea districts, and tea publications call its tea the strongest and the most expensive in Zhenyuan. The mark document does not name the product class; descriptions speak of raw material for pu-erh.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Not established: the list of marks does not name the class. A reference note on the tea mountain in an essay about a trip to Kanpenqing (a tea portal reprinted it in 2020) writes that local tea growers mainly make, by hand, sun-dried tea ([晒青](https://thetea.app/article/shai-qing)茶, *shàiqīng chá*) — raw material for pu-erh; which product the mark covers does not follow from this.
* **Category:** Old-garden tea of Zhenyuan County; geographical indication certification mark.
* **Origin:** China, Yunnan Province (云南, *Yúnnán*), Pu'er prefecture-level city (普洱, *Pǔ'ěr*), Zhenyuan County (镇沅, *Zhènyuán*), Mengda Town (勐大镇, *Měngdà zhèn*), Wenkuang village committee, Kanpenqing village.
* **Protection zone:** The list gives Zhenyuan County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; the holder is not named, and I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone. The tea district is described more broadly: its core is Kanpenqing village according to a 2024 report, and the whole Wenkuang village committee according to the county's description; around it there are fifteen more villages, including Kuda (库达), Baishui (白水), Banpo (半坡) and Wenduo (文夺).
* **Geographic coordinates:** Exact coordinates are not found in the sources consulted.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **The legend of the seeds.** According to the account of a local leader in the same essay, in olden times, when the authorities conscripted men into the army, one resident of Kanpenqing was taken to Jinggu; he escaped from the camp and, on his way home, brought tea seeds — the local trees came from them. The reference note to the same essay gives another legend: the trees were planted by ancestors who took refuge here from turmoil more than 400 years ago. I have not seen documents for either story.
    * **1976.** According to the same essay, provincial specialists collected leaf here and took it to Kunming for testing; the quality was recognized as good, and the old trees as worthy of protection.
    * **2007.** According to the publication *Pu'er Wenhua*, in the pu-erh crash of 2007 Kanpenqing tea went through a sharp rise and fall; the gardens suffered badly and took several years to recover.
    * **The mark.** In the list of GI marks of Yunnan as of 28 December 2019, “镇沅砍盆箐茶” appears as row 98. The year of registration, the number and the holder are not found in the sources consulted.
    * **Tree passports.** A report on the website of China Central Television (2024) writes that in recent years each old tree of the core has been issued a “passport” with its location, coordinates, age, crown size and the person responsible for its care.
* **Name:** According to the same account, the ancestors hollowed wooden basins out of tree trunks — hence “砍盆箐”, roughly “the gully where basins are hewn”. Boats were also made from the trees to float down the stream, so the place is also called “砍船箐” — “the gully where boats are hewn”. The 2024 report writes briefly that the tea is named after the place, and the place became famous for its tea.
* **Cultural significance:** The county lists Kanpenqing among the eight tea districts of Zhenyuan together with Madeng, Qianjiazhai, Laohaitang, Chashanqing, Laowushan, Dasunshan and Wuyi; the publication *Pu'er Wenhua* in its own list puts the Baocangshan massif in place of Dasunshan. It also writes that Kanpenqing, like Madeng, was in olden times among the “eight famous teas of Yunnan”. According to a review of the old gardens of Mengda Town on another tea portal, it received this title in 1978 at an evaluation of famous teas in the province's foreign trade system, together with the teas of Haitang and Madeng, and in 1989 a provincial famous tea certificate; another piece dates the evaluation to 1976.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** The reference note on the tea mountain names the local seed-propagated large-leaf tea (有性大叶[群体种](https://thetea.app/article/qunti-zhong), *yǒuxìng dàyè qúntǐzhǒng*) — a population propagated by seed, not a single variety.
* **Old trees:** The counts diverge. The 2024 report: 896 old trees in the Kanpenqing core. The reference note to the essay: more than a thousand old trees on the mountain, more than three hundred of them with a wide crown. Other materials give 3890 and more than 4000 trees. The essay describes trees about 4–5 m tall with curving branches.
* **Raw material and harvest:** According to the essay, the leaf is picked in spring, in the rainy season and in autumn. Requirements of the mark and a harvest standard are not found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The Wuliangshan mountains; according to the county's description, the tea district lies in primeval forest deep inside the Wuliangshan nature reserve. The forest cover around it is 66%.
* **Altitude:** **1910 m** — according to the reference note on the tea mountain.
* **Climate:** An average annual temperature of 15.8–18.1 °C, precipitation of 920–1910 mm a year (reference note to the essay).
* **Vegetation and soils:** Evergreen broadleaf and mixed coniferous-broadleaf forest; the soils are lateritic red and red (赤红壤、红壤).
* **Area:** According to the 2024 report, the Wenkuang village committee has more than 4000 mu of tea, and the Kanpenqing core more than 2000 mu. The essay gives smaller figures for the village alone: more than 800 mu of tea gardens, of which more than 100 mu are old trees.
* **Village:** According to the essay, Kanpenqing stands halfway up the slope: 9 households, more than forty residents; from the village committee to the village it is 16 km of mountain road.

**5. Production Technology:**

The technology of the tea under the mark is not found in the sources consulted, and the class is not named. The reference note on the tea mountain speaks of hand-made sun-dried tea — raw material for pu-erh; for it the general scheme is as follows:

1.  **Picking (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 Zhenyuan Kanpenqing Cha. According to the essay, a cooperative of 38 residents works in the village: it buys leaf from the households and, by its own account, does not buy up leaf from other mountains.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The descriptions below are taken from the county reference, tea publications and a record of a tasting of the “eight teas of Zhenyuan” on a tea portal; no one has officially linked them to the product under the mark.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Yellowish, large, plate-like, even; the tasting record considers this color a recognizable sign of Kanpenqing. According to the same record, the tea is strong in taste rather than in looks, and it does not score high on standard evaluation.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** Succulent (干香润) — according to the tasting record.
* **Liquor aroma:** The county describes the tea with the formula “厚重饱满，浓酽霸气” — “dense and full, thick and domineering”; the reference note to the essay — a high aroma.
* **Taste:** Fresh and lively, fine in texture, with a lasting sweet return and a deep aftertaste (tasting record). The publication *Pu'er Wenhua* calls traditional Kanpenqing the strongest in the county: the bitterness goes away, the sweetness remains; later, according to the same publication, people here learned to make tea with a “rock-sugar sweetness” (冰糖甘) in the spirit of Bingdao. The essay: the first impression is sweetness, and the aroma lingers in the mouth for a long time.
* **Liquor color:** Golden, clear (reference note to the essay); bright and rich (tasting record).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No data in the sources consulted.

**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, since the local tea is described as raw material for it.

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

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. Sheng pu-erh is stored in a dry, clean, ventilated place without light or foreign odors, in breathable packaging; it is often aged for years.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

According to the trip essay, in 2016 spring old-tree tea from Kanpenqing sold for 3000–5000 yuan per kilogram, and tea from ordinary “ecological” gardens for 200–600 yuan. *Pu'er Wenhua* calls Kanpenqing the district with the highest tea price in the county. According to the 2024 report, in 2023 the value of the tea of the two hundred-odd households of the Wenkuang village committee exceeded 30 million yuan, of which more than 20 million came from the eleven households of the core.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the mark “镇沅砍盆箐茶” and check that the producer is from Zhenyuan County.
    * Remember that there are few old trees here: the tasting record states plainly that the best Kanpenqing is hard to obtain. A large volume at a low price is a reason to be wary.
    * Compare the appearance with the descriptions: yellowish large leaf, a golden liquor, a strong taste with a sweet return.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The name of the village, according to a local account, came from the wooden basins that were hollowed out of trunks here; the second name, “砍船箐”, comes from boats.
* Each of the 896 old trees of the core has received a “passport” with coordinates and the name of the person who looks after it.
* According to the tasting record, Kanpenqing is recognized at first glance and at the first sip, and the color of its dry leaf is “one of a kind”.

**13. Comparison with Neighboring Teas:**

* **Qianjiazhai and Bada ([千家寨](https://thetea.app/article/qianjiazhai-bada) · 巴达):** Our encyclopedia's article on the wild patriarch trees; the Qianjiazhai tree grows in the same county, in the Ailao mountains.
* **Bingdao Laozhai ([冰岛老寨](https://thetea.app/article/bingdao-laozhai)):** The benchmark of “rock-sugar sweetness” on which, according to *Pu'er Wenhua*, the local masters modeled themselves.
* **Nanjian Wuliangshan Hongcha ([南涧无量山红茶](https://thetea.app/article/nanjian-wuliangshan-hongcha)):** A red tea from the same Wuliangshan range, an article in the series.

**In Conclusion:**

Zhenyuan Kanpenqing Cha is the mark of a small forest village in the Wuliangshan mountains: 1910 m, 896 counted old trees, yellowish large leaf and a tea that the county calls dense and domineering, and connoisseurs the strongest and the most expensive in Zhenyuan. The mark is known only as a line in the provincial list, and it does not name the class, so everything else rests on county references and tea publications.