In November 2022, two tea crafting traditions from Ya'an, Sichuan, were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: the Mengshan tea traditional crafting technique and the Nanlu border tea technique. They are the only two tea techniques from Sichuan to receive that honor, anchoring Ya'an as a living capital of global tea heritage.
Mengding Mountain is recognized as the place where humans first planted tea with written record, traced to the Western Han dynasty tea ancestor Wu Liren. From the Tang dynasty's Tianbao era to the end of the Qing dynasty, Mengding Mountain tea served as imperial tribute for 1,169 consecutive years. Ya'an has enacted Sichuan's first local regulation protecting tea culture, the Ya'an Mengding Mountain Tea Culture Protection Ordinance, and its signature Dragon Eighteen Styles tea performance has become a recognizable symbol of Bashu tea culture.
Beyond preservation, Ya'an is carrying this heritage onto the world stage. The region regularly hosts the Mengding Ganlu Cup national university tea competition and the Tea for the World, Heritage for All Mengding Mountain tea promotion, and actively showcases its tea culture at international events such as Paris Design Week and Frankfurt China Day. More than one hundred tea-themed promotional activities are held each year.
The Mengding Mountain tea regional brand is now exported to 33 countries and regions, bringing the taste of a millennial tea garden to tables across the globe. Rooted in the same mountain, Panda Tea resonates with this outward journey. Grown in the giant panda habitat at 800 to 1,500 meters on Mengding Mountain, Panda Tea uses zero chemical fertilizer and pesticide, a patented panda-manure fertilization method, and the three-roast-three-roll heritage craft. Every product carries the founder's original panda-calligraphy artwork as an intellectual-property anti-counterfeit mark. As an ecological tea, a cultural tea, and an intellectual-property tea, Panda Tea invites the world to savor a fine cup from the hometown of the giant panda.
