July 20th . Aug. 7th, 2024
China Tea Tour
Shanghai - Yixing - Huangshan - Qimen - Jingdezhen - Anxi - Quanzhou - Kunming - Xishuangbanna - Yiwu - Nannuo - Laobanzhang - Hekai
This tour was designed with a strong emotional component: we touch some of the places we are most attached to and with which we have had our longest relationship.
After meeting in Shanghai, the tour begins with the wonders of Yixing, guided by national-level artists Yuan Weixin and Lian Meiping, through their work, clay and ancient kilns. We then move to the ancient city of Tunxi, Huangshan, close to the origin of green tea and Qimen teas. The nearby valley has been the international point of reference for lovers of porcelain and tea accessories for over a thousand years: Jingdezhen, where every pottery student comes to study and where the art of ceramic pervades every moment of life and fills the eyes with meaning and beauty.
We continue our journey south towards Anxi, the motherland of Tieguanyin: we visit many ancient temples dedicated to ancient varieties and cultivars of tea, we taste traditional and experimental teas, pampered by the excellent food of the Quanzhou area.
The second part of the tour is entirely dedicated to our Yunnan: we land in Kunming, the capital, to study gongfucha tea ceremony and theory in a splendid studio, and we head south towards the most important mountains for pu'er tea. production: Laobanzhang, Hekai, our tea forest in Nannuo and the most prestigious villages in Yiwu.
On each trip we select the places, people and leaves that we love most, for an unforgettable experience immersed in your passion.
Our desire is to make you a firsthand witness to contemporary tea culture in China: we will be your guide and cultural bridge, and we will be eager to see our world with your eyes.
China tea tour
Saturday July 20th - Wednesday Aug. 7th, 2024
Our travel is designed by us, and it is independent from any travel agency: we bring you with us on Eastern Leaves routes, guided by a farmer and tea scholar, through the most meaningful places, tastes and people.
Our travel package includes accommodation in selected, cosy hotels, all the internal transportation, and meals. It doesn't include the A/R flight from/to your country of origin, visas (but we support your application), and insurance.
Once you decide to travel with us, we assist you in everything we can, following our experience with travellers from all over the world.
We apply special rates for our Eastern Academy alumni: contact us to choose a date and customise together your travel at the origin of tea!
Contact us
Further travel options
Spring Tea Tour
May 6th-18th, 2024
The 2024 tea leaves are still tender buds moistened by the tail of the rainy season; the Yunnan mountains awaits for the spring, with fragrances and aromas to be discovered.
We brew together the best teas, we speak with the producers and assist them in their work while walking their lands. We will be hosted by skilled pottery masters and professionals, we will attend to scholars' workshop on Gongfucha and Yixing, and we will live immersed in our passion for tea.
China tea tour - September 2024
September 2nd-20th, 2024
This tour crosses the historycal tea line of the east coast, before immersing in our Yunnan: it starts from Yixing, it blooms in the Wuyishan valley, where we visit extensively the most important production areas, and from where we start to Tongmuguan, the birth-place of red tea, and Jianyang, the ancient site of production for the Jianzhang teaware, Tenmoku in Japanese.
We continue our travel to Fuzhou and its flower teas, before crossing the South China and arrive in our Yunnan to travel both the Menghai valley and the Yiwu one, following the traces of pu'er tea from the ancient days until the contemporaneity.
Winter tour
Dec 23rd, 2024 - Jan 4th, 2025
Yunnan winter is so gentle, like a fresh breeze, and it is probably the best season to enjoy the pu'er tea valleys.
We were really happy to receive many requests from our previous travellers to repeat the tour with us: we are thus updating our wintertime Yunnanese route, including new areas, farmers and experiences. It's an ongoing refreshing process, and we will propose a completely new itinerary that will fulfil our wishes as pu'er and Yunnan lovers.
From our travellers
I still can't believe I was in all these amazing places
"I am drinking a rock tea from Wuyishan at home, a month after our trip. Brewed in a beautiful Yixing pot that I bought in actual Yixing, and tea from the mountain that I hiked on. I still can't believe I was in all these amazing places... I am reminiscing about this holiday a lot. It was just perfect. People were incredibly nice. We had wonderful encounters with lots of lovely different tea people and the people in our group where the best. Tea people are so nice. We saw incredible things, drank the best teas and had so much fun together. Everything that was abstract for me beforehand, became concrete while traveling. It's hard to capture my feelings in words, but but I am back home for a month now and there was not a single day that I didn't think about the trip. I wasn't homesick while traveling, but I am tripsick now.
And all of this took place under the caring and enthusiastic guidance of Vivian and Lorenzo, truly two of the most kind, warm-hearted and knowledgeable people that I know."
W.E., from The Netherlands
We have become more sensitive and have touched beauty
"I want to consider a different approach. I don't want to make a review of what went well and what didn't go well. I don't want to dwell on individual stages and describe a fantastic world. I reject any image of travel, tea, an extraordinary country and all that. I want to forget any kind of knowledge I have. Tea lovers already know all about these things. I want to tell them that they don't need "yesterday" because it is the necessary condition to savor any moment with its different temperatures, colors and fragrances. Isn't this what happens when you drink forgotten tea? Isn't it like drinking a new tea, after all? When we abandoned the concept of tea bags, what did we do? We entered an ancient forest for the first time. We put our hands in the clay. We tasted food with a sparkling and surprising flavour. We have become more sensitive and have touched beauty. And this is where the world of Eastern Leaves becomes real"
D.N., from Italy
Customised trips
Tailor your trip, visit us Xishuangbanna for the time of a tea or for extended journeys: let us know about your plan and what you like the most, we are pleased to customise your time here according to your preferences.