Robb Report Malaysia’s Tailored Travel Whisked Readers To Yunnan’s Famed Pu’er Tea Mountains To Discover Magic Behind The Brew

Imagine a voyage which unfolds like a story, one which enriches the traveller through the learned wisdom of generations, passed through culture, tradition and livelihoods. This was the indulgence which awaited VIP guests who joined the Robb Report Malaysia Pu’er Tea Immersion Tailored Travel programme that took place during the first spring harvest of Pu’er tea this year.

This group of couples and individuals journeyed with us into the heart of Yunnan’s Pu’er-growing tea mountains. Among these ancient mountains, Robb Report Malaysia, together with its experience partner—renowned Pu’er tea expert and distributor Polygreen Tea—had prepared a bespoke itinerary together with some of the Pu’er industry’s top names and leading producers.

“We were able to bring this unique experience courtesy of Polygreen Tea’s decades-long relationship with the Pu’er tea industry and its leading players based in Hong Kong, Xiamen and Yunnan,” says Kenneth Tan, Editorial Director of Robb Report Malaysia. “Through the hospitality and deep connections of Polygreen Tea and its business partners, we are able to access the very heart of the ancient tea-growing mountains in which some of the oldest Pu’er trees still grow—some of which date back over a millennium to the Song Dynasty.”

May Chong, Polygreen Tea’s director, who had been travelling to this region of Yunnan over the past two decades, shares how the continual importance of Pu’er tea for both health and prestige reasons has made this collaboration particularly interesting to activate now.

She points out that Malaysians’ increasing awareness and affinity for high-quality Pu’er has developed over the past years in lockstep with China’s love for Pu’er. Chong is herself a qualified National Senior Tea Ceremony Master, which entails an examination of 1,000 questions on theoretical knowledge as well as a practical course on conducting tea ceremonies.

Her father, Chong Kok Chin, had developed an interest in tea on his numerous work trips to China. This interest led him to begin trading tea two decades ago and develop close ties to the most important tea masters, merchants and manufacturers who are now hugely influential in China’s Pu’er tea trade, many of whom have held the lofty positions in the Chinese Tea Culture International Exchange Association, an international tea alliance that co-organises global industry exhibitions and cultural exchanges.

The prelude to this unique journey began, in fact, in Shenzen, where a group of guests visited the tea salon of Daniel and Dennis Pak, sons of the renowned Pak Shui Qing, known to the industry as the Godfather of Pu’er. The Pak brothers’ charming tea house would welcome guests with freshly brewed Pu’er replete with live guzheng music.

The following day, it was time to meet their pater, via a short hop over to Hong Kong. On the island, Pak Shui Qing of Chuen Shing Trading and Pak Shui Ching Tea has lived his past four decades plying his trade from the very same building located in Chai Wan. It was here, back in the early 1980s, that he first arrived as a young man, apprenticing in trade and as a toymaker, before realising there was a burgeoning demand for fine tea in Hong Kong.

Over the years, the elder Pak would become a formidable force in the Pu’er tea trade, going to the source of Pu’er in the heavily forested areas of Yunnan. He soon discovered the magical ‘golden axis’ which has enabled Pu’er to flourish in this very spot of the world and nowhere else. This unique confluence of geography and nature birthed a prime tea-growing region which lies on a narrow span between 25- and 27-degree latitude, with a microclimate that only occurs due to the region’s high elevations of between 1,000 and 2,200 metres, allowing for a wide day-night temperature difference.

This, in turn, enables the concentration of flavour compounds within the tea leaves. Meanwhile, the red, laterite soil of this region allows the Pu’er tea tree’s giant taproot (up to two metres) to penetrate deeply into the ground, reaching for rich minerals that lie far beneath. An added element aiding this exceptional terroir lies in the high humidity that exists in this area, with an annual rainfall exceeding 1,400mm, allowing the broadleaf varietal to thrive.

In Hong Kong, guests also had the opportunity to meet Wong Man-yuen, founder of tea wholesaler and retailer Wing Yuen Tea House. Wong’s credentials include being the first president of the Chinese Tea Culture International Exchange Association and producing coveted Pu’er recipes such as the 8892 formulations. At his Causeway Bay office overlooking Hong Kong’s kinetic skyline, he quipped that as long as he has his teas and occasional vintage baijiu, he experiences the same contentment as a wealthy man.

The First Spring Harvest

At the Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture in Yunnan, the adventure into the heart of Pu’er truly begins. Guests of the Tailored Travel programme were royally hosted at Yang Pin Hao tea manufacture, one of the 21 key tea manufacturers in Menghai county and, more recently, given a CNY150 million (RM90.8 million approx.) upgrade of its facilities across over seven acres (300,000 sq ft) of land.

Here, amid the architectural grandeur recalling royal residences of the Han and Tang dynasties, guests were welcomed by Lin Junli, present-day owner of Yang Pin Hao tea manufacture, who regaled them with insights into the Pu’er industry and his two-decade-long journey, which led him to the present day as one of the top six Pu’er tea manufactures in China.

The next day’s itinerary then took guests into the heart of Menghai, the first county of Chinese Pu’er to discover the King of Pu’er, the Lao Ban Zhang. A joyous revelry greeted guests on the mountain with the spring harvest festival underway, with tribal songs, a ceremonial blessing of a Pu’er tree and a slew of performances including folk songs, dances and copious cups of Pu’er tea.

Guests were then taken to see some of the most ancient trees on the Lao Ban Zhang mountain, with a particularly old one dating back to the 11^th century, a time when the Khmer Empire was expanding around Angkor Wat, when Baghdad and Cairo were the global hubs of science, mathematics and philosophy, and Europe was still experiencing its early Middle Ages.

At a nearby tea planter’s home, guests had an appreciation of the stages of turning tea leaves into prized Pu’er, from the rubbing of leaves to its roasting by hand. Towards the end of the day, and back at Yang Pin Hao, guests were treated to a delicious al fresco dinner courtesy of asset management firm AHAM Capital, who also participated in this edition of Robb Report Malaysia’s Tailored Travel programme. In the cool of the evening mountain air, the sizzle of meats and fresh produce of the barbecue mingled with the ethereal songs of an entertainer troupe’s local native songs, as the night wound to a close with folk dances and good cheer.

Filmed by The Spacemen

Photography by Joshua Chay and Wong Jin Xian / The Spacemen