🍂 Phoenix Dancong · Wudong Village

☁️ Cloud and mist are the breath of the mountain, while ancient tea trees are the marks of time.
🌬️ When the monsoon at 23° north latitude sweeps across the peak of eastern Guangdong and meets volcanic rocks at an altitude of one thousand meters -
🍵 Do you know what kind of natural wonder makes the mountain cloud and mist turn into the golden tea soup in the cup?

✨ The clouds and mists of the mountains have nurtured the tea charm for thousands of years, and the traditional craftsmanship has refined the oolong tea treasures. Deep in the clouds and mists of the Fenghuang Mountains in Chaozhou, Wudong Village and its core area, Liziping, have been lying quietly for seven centuries. This is not only the hometown of our company's selected oolong tea, but also the soul hometown of China's top oolong tea, "Phoenix Dancong". Let's break through the heavy fog and enter this millennium tea epic co-written by nature and the ingenuity of the She and Han people...

1️⃣ Geographic Environment: The Natural Endowment of the Cloudy Tea Hometown

🏞️ Wudong Village is located in the northwestern part of Fenghuang Town, Chao'an District, Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. It is situated on the mountainside of Wudong Mountain, which is 1,319 meters above sea level, about 7.1 kilometers away from the town government. The village includes eight natural villages, such as Hucuo, Xialiao and Liziping. Although the population is only more than 750 people, it has more than 5,600 mu of high mountain tea gardens, with an altitude between 985 and 1,200 meters.

📜 According to historical records, the annual average temperature on the Wudong Peak of Fenghuang Mountain is 22°C, and the annual precipitation is 1800 mm. The mountain is shrouded in clouds all year round. The loose and fertile volcanic soil and the humid air form a natural greenhouse. The sunlight passes through the clouds to form diffused light, which not only prevents the leaves from being burned but also promotes the accumulation of aromatic substances - this is exactly the source of the natural floral fragrance of "Wudong Dancong" Huangzhixiang and Milanxiang. The Wudong Tianchi on the top of the mountain is like a pearl inlaid on the mountain. The strange rocks such as the Prince Cave and the Sword Testing Stone are intertwined with the thousand-mu alpine meadow, forming a unique ecological picture.

📖 II. History and Humanities: From Tea Shack to the Holy Land of Tea Culture

🍃 A millennium of tea heritage, blending of She and Han cultures

👑 The legend dates back to the late Song Dynasty: When the young emperor Zhao Bing fled south to Wudong Mountain, he was hungry and thirsty. Suddenly, a phoenix came with tea branches and twin fruits in its mouth. The ministers chewed the tender leaves to relieve fatigue and quench their thirst. Zhao Bing sowed the tea seeds with his own hands and decreed that "this tea will always stay on Wudong Mountain". Thus, it became the origin of the ancient tea. The phoenix presented auspiciousness, so it got the name "bird's beak".

📚 According to the book "Chinese Phoenix Tea", there were She people living in Chao'an area in ancient times, and Fenghuang Mountain is the recognized birthplace of the She people. Most of the villagers are descendants of Wen Tianxiang and the She people. During the tea-picking season, it is common to see three generations of a family working together: the elderly in their 70s and 80s can still climb trees to pick tea leaves, middle-aged men stay up all night to shake and bake the tea leaves, and children play on the side of the tea drying field.

🌳 Liziping: A Living Museum of Ancient Tea Trees

🏡 Liziping is the seat of the Wudong Village Committee and the gene pool of Phoenix Dancong. In the giant stone tea garden in the northeast of the village, there once stood a Song-style Huangzhixiang tree known as the "Tea King". This ancient tree, selected and bred by the Li family in the late Southern Song Dynasty, has deep roots and lush leaves, resembling a banyan tree. It is about five meters high and four meters wide, with eight branches on its trunk. The middle branch is cut off, and the tree head is separated into three forks. After seven hundred years of vicissitudes, its name has changed with the times: from "Tuanshuye" and "Dayexiang" to "Dongfanghong". Later generations called it "Song tea", "Song-style No.1", and "Old Tea King". Although it died in 2016, its cuttings continue to reproduce, and it has also become a living fossil of Phoenix tea culture.

🍃 3. Tea Industry Origin: The Golden Region of Chinese Oolong Tea

🌲 Kingdom of Ancient Tea Trees

As the core protected area of ancient tea trees in China, there are more than 4,000 ancient tea trees over 100 years old in Wudong Village, including:

• ▶ More than 3,000 ancient tea trees over 200 years old (accounting for 75% of the total)
• ▶ More than 1,000 trees over 300 years old
• ▶ 67 trees over 400 years old
• ▶ 17 trees over 500 years old
• ▶ There are 7 rare mother trees over 600 years old, especially the "Dayexiang" (formerly known as the Song Dynasty Species and Dongfanghong) with a tree age of over 600 years, which is the crown of them all.

🛠️ Ingenious craftsmanship and variety wonders

Tea production follows the ancient method of "making tea according to the weather":

• 🌤️ Picking: Only pick on cloudy afternoons, avoiding the scorching sun, rain and fog. Leave one leaf to ensure growth next year.
• ☀️ Sun withering: The leaves are placed on bamboo sieves and sun-dried outdoors. The “sun fragrance” gives the tea a unique sun-kissed flavor that cannot be replicated by machines;
• 🍃 Making green tea: The process consists of three steps: touching, shaking and standing still. These steps are repeated at least four times.
• 🔥 Fixing: Stir-fry the tea leaves in a high-temperature pot to make the water evaporate in large quantities, the tea leaves become cooked and the texture becomes soft;
• 🌀 Rolling: Press the tea leaves to make them tightly curled into strips, squeeze out the tea juice, and evenly spread the juice on the surface of the tea leaves to form a "tight strip" appearance;
• 🔥 Roasting: The traditional charcoal roasting process requires experienced masters to control the heat, while the modern method is electric roasting;

🌱 The cultivation of tea varieties shows more wisdom. More than 80 strains such as Huangzhixiang, Zhilanxiang and Yashixiang have been cultivated by cutting from the mother tree of Songzhong, forming a wonder of "one tree, one fragrance type". In 1983, Fenghuang Dancong ranked among the top ten famous teas in China. In 1986, it topped the list of famous teas in China with 99.85 points and was exported to more than 50 countries.

🚀 4. Industrial Revitalization: From the Deep Mountain Tea House to the International Tea Port

🏭 The "Wudong Model" of the Integration of the Three Industries

• 📏 Standardized production: The Tea Association was established, the Measures for the Protection of Ancient Tea Trees was implemented, and the Genealogy of Ancient Phoenix Dancong Tea Trees was compiled. More than 2,000 ancient tea trees were scientifically managed.
• 🤝 Industrialized operation: The company, base and farmers are linked to realize the integration of production, supply and marketing.
• 🏞️ Tea tourism integration: The homestay cluster is linked with the Wudong Tianchi Scenic Area, receiving 5 million tourists annually. During the spring tea season, tourists can experience tea picking and tea making, taste the eighteen styles of kung fu tea, and watch the sea of clouds and sunrise.

🍵 Conclusion: Perpetuating the Tea Heritage and Spreading Its Fragrance Worldwide

🌫️ Clouds and mists are swirling, and the fragrance of tea is lingering. The century-old ancient tea trees in Wudong Village are the source of the eighteen-style tea art of "Guan Gong Patrolling the City" and "Han Xin Counting Soldiers" in Chaozhou Gongfu Tea. They are also the crystallization of the wisdom of the She and Han ancestors living in harmony with nature. When the golden tea halo floats in the cup of Wudong Dancong tea, what you taste is not only the honey orchid fragrance, but also an epic of the local customs of Lingnan that has passed through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

💚 Every tea leaf from Liziping, Wudong Village, carries the clouds and mists of a thousand meters above sea level, the genes of the six-century-old mother tree, and the warmth of the fingertips of the She and Han craftsmen. This double gift of nature and humanity infuses the soul of Phoenix Mountain into the cups of tea lovers around the world.