Tea Culture
Yaan cradles the world's tea culture. A sacred tea-tree mountain brought forth an Ancient Tea-Horse Path. The tea civilization originated with the fragrance of tea and spread in the world. "Who planted the world's first tea tree on Mengding Mountain?" "Who picked the world's first tea leaf on Mengding Mountain". The mountain refers to Mending Mountain and the road refers to the Ancient Tea-Horse Path. "Water from center of Yangtze River and tea from Mengding Mountain" have been well-known at home and abroad; and the tea of Sichuan is the best in the world, especially the tea from Mengding Mountain. In 53 BC, Wu Lizhen, founder of tea planting, pioneered the tea planting on Mengding Mountain. In the first year of the Tianbao Reign of Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty (742 AD), Mengding Mountain tea began to be used as a tribute tea, which had been remained to the Qing Dynasty for 1,169 years. As the starting point of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, Yaan is the cradle of the Zen tea culture, being the longest-standing and largest production base of Tibetan tea. Every March, the Mengding Mountain International Tea Culture and Tourism Festival will be grandly held on holy Mengding Mountain.