In the height of summer, Ya'an's Mingshan District once again captured nationwide attention. From July 12 to 16, 2026, the Sichuan Provincial Youth Table Tennis Open (China · Ya'an Golden Panda Station) was held in Mingshan, gathering more than a thousand young athletes from across the country at the foot of Mengding Mountain. What began as a sports event evolved into a vibrant cultural resonance of "Golden Panda + Mengding Mountain Tea."

**Golden Panda Market Showcases Mengding Mountain Tea**

During the tournament, Mingshan launched the brand-new "Golden Panda Market" at the Ganlu Fang specialty block, bringing together 10 premium tea enterprises and 10 local agricultural producers. Mengding Ganlu, Mengding Maofeng, Mengding Huangya, and Ya'an Tibetan Tea — Mengding Mountain's signature offerings — were showcased side by side, allowing athletes and visitors to savor the rich aroma of this world-renowned tea cultural holy mountain. To complement the event, the district rolled out RMB 80,000 in government consumption vouchers, including a "Spend 200, Save 60" promotion on tea products, effectively turning "competitions into consumption" and "tea into a crowd-puller."

**Free Access to Mengding Mountain for Athletes**

To help young players experience the millennia-old tea culture of Mengding Mountain, the district offered free admission to the Mengding Mountain Scenic Area for all participants (with 1,000 complimentary tickets distributed on a first-come, first-served basis). Simultaneously, 15 partner hotels, 9 boutique homestays, and 20 quality restaurants offered exclusive discounts throughout the summer. Open-access scenic spots including the Thousand Li Rivers and Mountains panorama, Niunianping, Moon Lake, Red Grassland, Qingyi Lake, and Baizhang Lake were also part of the integrated experience, transforming "competition traffic" into genuine "tourism retention."

**Thousand Li Rivers and Mountains Vouchers Continue Through August**

Beyond the Golden Panda Market, Mingshan will continue distributing consumption vouchers along the Thousand Li Rivers and Mountains tourism route and at the Ganlu Fang Half-Cangyun Bookstore through August 30, offering on-site discounts on tea beverages and cultural products. This creates a dynamic "Golden Panda + Mengding Mountain Tea" consumption circuit weaving through the tea-growing heartland.

**"Lung of Tianfu · Panda Ya'an" Art Exhibition Opens in Parallel**

Notably, the "Lung of Tianfu · Panda Ya'an" Calligraphy, Painting, and Photography Exhibition, guided by the Sichuan Provincial CPPCC Painting & Calligraphy Research Institute and hosted by the Ya'an Municipal CPPCC, opened its premiere run in Chengdu on July 1 and runs through August 20, before transferring to Ya'an from September 1 through October 25. Among the 105 exhibited works, calligraphers Wang Tangbing, Wang Hanxiong and others contributed masterpieces such as Ode to Mengding Mountain Tea and Thousand Li Rivers and Mountains · Ten Thousand Mu of Tea Gardens. Photographer Xue Kang's National Treasure — Hundred Cats Picture and root carvings such as Ping-Pong Panda complemented the calligraphy, narrating the profound heritage of Ya'an's "Panda + Tea" dual IP through ink, light, and shadow.

**Panda Tea: An Ecological, Cultural, and Intellectual Property Tea**

As an ecological tea brand rooted in Ya'an Mengding Mountain, Panda Tea's tea gardens are situated within the core giant panda habitat. The brand adheres to a zero-chemical-fertilizer, zero-pesticide ecological cultivation model and pioneered the patented "Panda Manure Fertilization Panda Tea" technology, deeply integrating the national treasure giant panda with millennia-old tea culture. Founder Mr. An Yanshi infuses the brand with a unique cultural DNA through his environmental Chinese-character panda calligraphy and panda paintings, making Panda Tea not just an ecological tea, but a cultural tea and an intellectual property tea.

Empowered by the dual momentum of the "Golden Panda" tournament and the "Lung of Tianfu · Panda Ya'an" art exhibition, the brand value of Ya'an's "Panda + Tea" dual IP continues to expand. Panda Tea will persist in using tea as a bridge, letting this ecological tea from the hometown of giant pandas carry its fragrance nationwide and to the world.

(Sources: Toutiao, Ya'an Cultural Center; Cover image generated by AI.)