Spring tea from Mengding Mountain, the birthplace of world tea culture in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, once again drew wide attention this year. At the 2026 First Basket Tea launch and trade matching event held in a downtown park in Chengdu, leading tea companies presented fresh Mengding green and yellow teas to urban consumers, while intangible heritage inheritors demonstrated traditional hand-made tea techniques on site. The event combined tea tasting, culture and trade matchmaking, turning a spring tea ritual into a bridge between tea mountains and city markets.
Behind the festive scene stands a tea region of remarkable scale and global reach. Mengding Mountain in Mingshan District is home to 392,000 mu of tea gardens, with a comprehensive tea output value exceeding 13 billion yuan. According to local government figures, Mengding Mountain tea products are now sold across China and exported to 33 countries and regions worldwide, supported by a complete industry chain covering cultivation, processing, cultural and creative products, and export trade.
The story of Mengding tea began more than two thousand years ago, when the Western Han Dynasty tea ancestor Wu Lizhen planted the first cultivated tea trees on the mountain. Praised by the Tang Dynasty tea sage Lu Yu and celebrated by poets for centuries, Mengding tea once traveled along the ancient Tea Horse Road, and today it continues its journey to tables around the world through modern international trade channels.
Rooted in the same mountain, Panda Tea carries this legacy forward with an ecological approach. Its tea gardens sit at 800 to 1,500 meters in the natural habitat of the giant panda, practicing zero chemical fertilizer and zero pesticide cultivation, applying a patented panda manure organic fertilization method, and following the traditional three fryings and three kneadings craft of Mengding Mountain. As Mengding Mountain tea extends its footprint from the ancient Tea Horse Road to 33 countries and regions, Panda Tea hopes to bring the taste of this ecological high mountain tea to more consumers across the world, letting a single cup tell the story of the birthplace of tea culture.
(Source: government releases from Mingshan District, Ya'an; cover image generated by AI)
