Tea tour and forest visits
At the origin of tea
A forest has no doors
We welcome you among our tea trees all-year long, to savour all aspects of the terroir with your own senses. Each visit is a full immersion in the Yunnanese terroir, in full respect of its land, people, and culture.
We offer different kind of group trips to visit some of the most important tea places of China.
Each tour has a different theme, following nature, seasonality, and simply our heart.
Explore this page for the latest schedule, and contact us to book a talk and find the solution that better suits your needs.
China tea tour
May 1st - May20th, 2025
Fully booked - Waiting list
Itinerary and booking
Summer tour
August 4th-18th, Sichuan and Yunnan,
Fully booked - waiting list
China Autumn Tour
October 28th-November 14th, China tour
Itinerary and booking
Winter Tour, Yunnan
December 22nd-January 4th
Itinerary and booking
Customised visits:
Bookings are open for late May-September 2025.
Seasons
Xishuangbanna is enjoyable all year-long, with a very mild sub-tropical climate that express itself in a moltitude of colors.
October-January
The rain in October starts to diminish until a dry January; the temperature are mild, with fresh nights (13-18°C) and warm days (19-25 °C).
Ideal for any kind of visit, at all altitude.
February-April
February and March are the dryest months, and between mid-March and mid-April the tea season is at its peak: expect hotter days (max 30-33°C in Jinghong, 28°C in the mountain) and a dry weather, until the first rains arrives between late March and April.
May-September
The rainy season with its ever-changing skies, hues, and fragrances.
The new tea has been pressed and it is ready to be tasted and purchased.
Choose it if you like to feel the tropical fragrance on banana leaves, and you are ready to relax listening to the sound of the rain.
Beyond the clouds
Early Summer Tea Tour
The tour begins in early summer, when the first rains refresh tea leaves, trees, and mountains. Skies shift, colors deepen, and spring teas grace our tables.
Starting in Kunming, we travel to Xishuangbanna for Gongfucha and Yixing workshops, then head north to Dali and Shaxi, where history lingers along the Tea Horse Road. In southwest Yunnan, we explore its renowned tea mountains and forests, brewing with producers, walking their lands, and visiting pottery masters and artists.
This journey embodies Eastern Leaves: Yunnan’s soul, Chinese culture, and the people who make our tea experience truly meaningful.
October 28th - November 12th, 2025
China tea tour
This tour crosses the historical tea line of the east coast, before immersing in our Yunnan.
It starts from Yixing, and it proceeds to 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.
For the second part of the tour we fly to our Yunnan, where we'll immerse in pu'er lands of Xishuangbanna, following the traces of pu'er tea from the ancient days until the contemporaneity.
December 22nd, 2025 - January 4th, 2026
Winter Tour, Yunnan
This itinerary explores the diversity of our beloved Yunnan in tea, geography, and culture: we cross its high-mountain geography from north to south, through its two most important kingdoms of Nanzhao (Tang dynasty, 618-907) and Dai (Song dynasty, 960-1279), indulging in the best leaves that the locals who inhabited these lands refined over centuries.
Winter in Yunnan is gentle and quiet: the weather in the valleys is mild, and it is possible to travel over the majority of the tea roads and trails, and all of the new teas in both maocha and pressed bricks are waiting to be brewed.
Future dates
Summer, Autumn, and Winter 2025/2026
Our Summer Tour in August, covering Sichuan and Yunnan, is currently fully booked. However, you can still join our waiting list.
This Autumn, we are planning an East Coast China Tour between October and November. Subscriptions are open, and we are currently refining the itinerary—stay tuned for the final version, which will be published soon!
As always, our winter tour will take place between December and January during the Winter Holidays.
Feel free to reach out for more details—we’d love to hear from you!
Customised trips and long-term stay
Tailor your trip according to your favorite time to travel and the places you wish to visit: let us know about your plan and what you like the most, we are pleased to customise your time here according to your preferences.
We welcome long-term visitors for both professional improvements and collaborations. Xishuangbanna is an ideal base for living and breathing tea culture at any time of the day; every road leads you to a tea mountain and every conversation will leave you with new ideas and inspiration.
Long-term stays are subject to project approval and fit into our annual program.
Contact us
Tour galleries
Click on an image below to explore the photos of our previous tea tours.
