Mount Bada: located in the west of Meng Hai County near the border with Burma (Myanmar), which is separated only by a river. At altitudes 1700-2000 m.n.m. and on an area of 316 km2 it is inhabited mainly by minorities (zu) Hani and Bulang. The area includes places like Zhang Lang or He Song – both famous for pu-erh from old trees.
As in many other places throughout Yunnan, here on Mount Da Hei, we find a large old tea tree of the species Camellia taliensis (a close relative of the tea tree C. sinensis) growing in the rainforest, estimated to be 1700-1800 years old and nicknamed quite unoriginally. ‘ The King of Teas’.
A total community of old tea trees and ancient tea gardens (originally deliberately grown tea trees; now abandoned and wild) grows on an area of around 33 km2, and today’s cultivated gardens cover another roughly half of the area.
