What a hardcore tea trip (so early the sun isn't up yet - which is typical)!
Deep in the mountains.
This is the material to make Yongxi Huo Qing (green tea).
The aroma is quite nice!
This is the last step of making Yongxi Huo Qing (green tea).
Shaping.
This is Yongxi Huo Qing (green tea).
(This is making Taiping Hou Kui, green tea.)
What's the name of your village?
Tianxi Keng.
Tian (sweet), Xi (brook).
This is shaping of Taiping Hou Kui (green tea).
We are going to Hou Gang from the back of the mountain.
(Hou Gang is the origin of Taiping Hou Kui, green tea.)
This is the start of the path to Hou Gang from the other side of the mountain.
Strenuous travel for Taiping Hou Kui.
So beautiful!
This is the tea garden in Chenjia Wu.
Once we climb over this mountain, it will be Hou Gang.
Now we are at Chenjia Wu.
On my right side is Gan Keng.
Ah, this aroma...
Camphor tree?
What?! No, this is not a camphor tree.
What is it then?
This is the smell of unknown miscellaneous trees and flowers.
Okay, unknown miscellaneous trees and flowers.
Where is Yanjia (a place name)?
Yanjia is on the other side of this mountain.
The environment here is wonderful.
So aromatic!
A unique unknown aroma.
What a wonderful place.
Let's keep climbing.
Hou Gang is there.
Yanjia is on my right side
We are at Chenjia Wu.
What an incredible environment here!
Here is the separation.
The road down the mountain is in Hou Keng (a place name) area.
We are at Chenjia Wu right now.
The road we took up the mountain is in Chenjia Wu area.
This is where it seperates.
We are heading to Hou Keng.
The tip of the mountain over there is called Fenghuang Jian.
This is the path of my tea trip.
We are heading to the core production region of Taiping Hou Kui (green tea).
We walked from Chenjia Wu to the highest area of Hou Keng which is called Hou Gang.
I was here 4 years ago. But I didn't take this trail.
This time we walk from the back of the mountain.
This is what the trail is like on the back of the mountain.
Let's have a good look at the environment here.
Those are mountains across from us.
Right now there are no tea gardens here.
But we can see tea gardens from afar.
I've gotta be careful.
This is pretty much how the rest of the trail looks like.
I should put my cellphone away.
I don't want to fall here.
Can you see the mini trail down the mountain?
It's drizzling. We are now at Hou Gang.
Drizzling.
This cultivar is bigger.
This cultivar itself is a bigger and thicker kind. Now with a good nutrition supply, it's even "fattier".
This is heavenly!
The flowers are so pretty!
We are at the foot of Fengjiang Jian.
It's still drizzling.
This is Hou Gang.
Fenghuang Jian is this little tip there,
We are at where Xinmin area and Longmen area meet.
This trail we are on is where they separate.
Now it's raining. Let's head back.
When it rains, it rains...
The fog is blocking most of the view.
All locked in the fog.
We did walk through a tea field to get up there.
Do we need to climb over this mountain to head down?