Jingmai Mountain

The Blang and Dai communities on Jingmai grow tea in a way that predates plantations: old tea trees are left standing within the forest, shaded by taller species, with the understorey managed rather than cleared, an arrangement that has been worked for around a thousand years and that suppresses pests without chemicals. UNESCO inscribed the Jingmai old tea forests in 2023 as the first tea cultural landscape on the list. Villages of timber houses sit among the groves with tea processing going on in courtyards, spirit forests are left untouched by custom, and the mountain produces sought-after pu'er.

What you actually see

• The forest tea groves - old tea trees growing under a taller canopy.
• The Blang and Dai villages - timber settlements among the groves.
• The tea processing - picking, withering and pressing in courtyards.
• The spirit forests - patches left uncut by local custom.

When to go

October to April for dry weather; spring picking from March to April is the main harvest and the busiest season in the villages. The summer monsoon brings heavy rain and difficult roads.

Honest expectations

Roads up the mountain are rough and transport limited without a car. Facilities are village guesthouses. Since the UNESCO listing, visitor infrastructure has been expanding quickly.

Nearby

Pu'er lies northeast; Xishuangbanna is southeast.