Image source: Yu Xuanxun mobile phone shooting
Many years ago, I saw the mother tree of China's famous Da Hong Pao tea tree on TV, but I didn't see it too clearly at that time, and the camera passed in a flash. However, I remember the legend of the Da Hong Pao tea tree very clearly.
When Mr. Lu looked up the map, he saw Wuyi Mountain, which is the origin of Da Hong Pao, and we were very curious about what kind of mother tree Da Hong Pao was, so we decided to see its real body.
We set off from Taining County at four o'clock in the afternoon, ready to make our next stop to Wuyi Mountain to stay at a homestay.
There are more than 150 kilometers from Taining to Wuyi Mountain, and it takes two and a half hours to reach at our driving speed. When it was more than six o'clock in the evening, the sky was completely dark, because of the previous walking on the night road, especially the loneliness of walking on the national highway, which had no trace of the former and no one came, once left me with a sense of fear, afraid of the many unsafe factors that happened at night that I imagined myself, so for the sake of safety, we temporarily checked the map, decided to find a place to stay, and then marched to Wuyi Mountain tomorrow morning when the line of sight was good.
By looking, we locked down the city of Shaowu, which is not far from the highway. It is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Nanping City in Fujian Province, located in the southern foothills of Wuyi Mountain. As we were only for the accommodation, we didn't get into the city to explore. Looking at the houses and streets in the city from the places I walked, it felt like the place was not bad.
Shaowu City is only more than 80 kilometers away from Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area, and the next morning we slowly got up, set off after breakfast, and arrived at Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area after more than an hour.
Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area is very large, we drove to the vicinity, but the navigation with around and did not find where to go in, and finally took the wrong way into a scenic route that prohibits foreign vehicles, so we had to quickly retreat.
Later, we met a local tour guide whose home was in the scenic area. We simply parked the car outside the scenic spot, paid the tour guide fee and followed his car into the tour.
We often travel by car outside, and there are many mountains and rivers that we have seen, and scenic tours do not have a great attraction for us. We love tea and I prefer tea trees. When I was a child, in the mountain forest of Menghai in Xishuangbanna, I often had countless close contact with tea trees, which were the raw materials for making Pu'er tea. For Da Hong Pao, we drink its tea soup, but we have never seen its tea tree, let alone the appearance of its mother tree, and it is what we are most interested in pursuing and visiting its true body.
The mother tree of Da Hong Pao grows in the Jiulong Yao Scenic Area of Wuyi Mountain. The tour guide took us to the scenic entrance and let us go on our own tour, and he went his own way.
Entering through the scenic gate, there is a canyon leading to Tianxin Rock, which is deep, quiet and fresh. The high rocky cliffs on both sides of the canyon are rolling like a nest, and it occurred to me that the name of Kowloon Cave has a history.
I am very happy that we came at the time of the blooming of camellias, and the blossoms of camellias were fragrant in the turquoise tea garden. We walked all the way to the depths of the valley, saw a stone path curved and stretched, there are streams along the side of the stone path along the canyon, this is the most yearning wonderland in people's hearts, the stone path trail passes through the tea gardens, where the descendants of the Mother Tree of the Great Red Robe are planted, and all kinds of excellent Wuyi rock tea precious varieties are cultivated, cinnamon, golden laurel, woolly monkeys, golden monkeys and so on.
The world-famous tea king "Da Hong Pao", just on a rocky cliff in the deepest part of the canyon, has now become a cultural heritage of China.
When I actually saw the mother tree of Da Hong Pao, I realized that it was different from the ancient tea tree in Pu'er, Yunnan. The Da Hong Pao mother tree only has a few trees that grow on the rocks, and they also bloom with fragrant camellias, and the tea plant varieties are not tall, but its ancient history is admirable. Although we can only take pictures of them from a distance, we feel that this trip is worth it, and it gives us a closer and deeper understanding of China's famous Da Hong Pao. When we are in it, we always feel that we have entered a blessed land, and what we can take with us will be a blessing from nature.
We came out of Kowloon and contacted the tour guide again, he took us around the Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area, and explained us a lot of relevant cultural knowledge, the tour guide was enthusiastic, took us to his house for dinner, we took away his handmade Wuyi Mountain Rock Tea, the tea aroma and delicious coziness needless to say.
The beautiful scenery of Wuyi Mountain is innumerable, and the places where the footsteps can be measured and the places that can be touched are natural and fresh, and they are all handsome and beautiful. Come here, breathe the air in nature, feel the embrace of beautiful landscapes, and the troubles of the world will disappear into the distant mountains...
(Dawangfeng)
(Nine-Curve Creek)
(Nine-Curve Creek Bamboo Raft)
(Our travel diary from December 27 to 28, 2021)