17 tea districts
Tea travel Buying tea takes no travel; standing in the garden is something else. This gathers the routes, the sights, the trails, the seasons, the food, the beds and the transport for each tea district — and every district links to the teas that come from it, so if reading it makes you thirsty, keep scrolling.
4 routes Day trip teas 6 新北市茶區 Pinglin・Shiding・Sanxia You can be standing in pouchong country a little over an hour after leaving Taipei Main Station. Pinglin has the museum, the river and trails you can finish in an afternoon; Shiding’s old street is built out over the water; Sanxia makes a green tea unlike anywhere else. All three work as day trips. 2 routes Day trip teas 3 台北市茶區 Maokong・Nangang There are tea gardens inside Taipei city limits, which is reason enough to go up once. The gondola puts you on the tea hills forty minutes out of downtown; in Nangang the osmanthus flowers in autumn and the whole hill road smells of it. 1 routes Day trip teas 4 北部茶區 Shimen Shimen sits at Taiwan’s northern tip, where the Tieguanyin drinks sea moisture all year but is sheltered from the wind by the land itself. Do the tea-hill trail, then the waterfall, then the seafood — that is a day. 2 routes Day trip teas 7 桃園茶區 Longtan・Yangmei Longtan and Yangmei are cycling country. The slopes are gentle, the ponds many, and the tea gardens sit between fish ponds and farms, so you can stop often. This is also one of the districts that makes Oriental Beauty. 2 routes Day trip teas 3 新竹茶區 Beipu・Emei The home of Oriental Beauty. Beipu and Emei sit either side of a hill: Beipu sells, Emei grows, a division settled since the 1990s. Old streets, heritage houses, pounded tea, tung blossom, fireflies, dried persimmons — something is happening here all year. 4 routes Day trip teas 2 苗栗茶區 Toufen・Shitan・Sanyi・Tongluo: Jiuhu Miaoli’s tea grows alongside silkworms, woodcarving and tung blossom. Laoqi in Toufen has a whole graded set of trails from twenty minutes to two hours — pick by how much walking you want. Shitan has a tea street, Sanxia has the April snow. 6 routes Two days possible teas 3 南投縣茶區 Lugu・Mingjian / Songboling・Zhushan・Yuchi・Shuili・Nantou City: Houtanjing Dongding is in Lugu, Songboling in Mingjian, the spiral gardens in Zhushan, and Sun Moon Lake black tea in Yuchi. Four places making four different teas, all within an hour of each other by car — the densest square of tea in Taiwan. 1 routes Day trip teas 15 杉林溪茶區 Shanlinxi・Around Yangzaiwan and Longfengxia Above 1,500 m, forty minutes further up the road from Lugu. This is ginkgo, moso bamboo and cloud country; tea is one thing among several here, though it is the one that keeps. 1 routes Day trip teas 12 玉山茶區 Caopingtou・Yushan visitor tea gardens Caopingtou and the Yushan visitor gardens in Xinyi township, 1,250–1,500 m up on the flank of Jade Mountain. There is a giant teapot landmark here, and the whole run of the New Central Cross-Island Highway. 2 routes Two days possible teas 12 仁愛茶區 Qingjing・Lushan・Cuifeng, Cuiluan, Chunyang Qingjing, Lushan, Cuifeng, Chunyang — all above 1,000 m on average, with the Dongyanshan farm reaching 1,750. This is the gateway to hot springs, high pasture and Hehuanshan; tea is one of several reasons to be up here. 2 routes Two days possible teas 12 梨山茶區 Lishan・Fushoushan farm・Wuling farm Two thousand to 2,600 m — the highest tea district in Taiwan . It is a long drive, but the same road gives you peaches, apples, the Xueshan trailhead and the country’s protected salmon. Give it two days at least. 3 routes Day trip teas 1 雲林縣茶區 Gukeng: Huashan and Zhanghu・Gukeng: Caoling and Shibi・Linnei One township, coffee at 400 m and high-mountain tea at 1,200. Gukeng lets the two get on with their own business: Huashan and Zhanghu turned to garden cafés and hill trails, while Caoling and Shibi kept making high-mountain tea. Linnei sits lower still, 200 to 400 m. 2 routes Day trip teas 4 蘭陽名茶區 Datong: Yulan・Dongshan: Zhongshan Yilan grows its tea low — Yulan at around 150 m, Dongshan under 500. Low does not mean lesser: the rain and humidity here make a tender leaf and a delicate, high-toned aroma. An hour from Taipei through the Xueshan tunnel. 6 routes Two days possible teas 16 阿里山茶區 Meishan: Ruili, Ruifeng, Taixing, Taihe・Zhuqi and Shizhuo・Dabang, Tefuye, Lijia — Tsou villages This district has the most itineraries, and nearly all of them run two days. Ruili, Ruifeng, Taixing and Taihe in Meishan are threaded together by old trails, bamboo, waterfalls and suspension bridges, and the guesthouses are the tea growers themselves. Further up are Zhuqi, Shizhuo and the Tsou villages. Every month of the year has its own crop.3 routes Two days possible teas 3 花東縱谷茶區 Ruisui, Hualien: Wuhe・Yuli, Hualien: Chikeshan・Fuli, Hualien: Liushishishan Chike mountain and Liushishi mountain, where daylilies and tea grow on the same slopes. August’s gold is the famous picture, but the tea is here all year. 3 routes Two days possible teas 3 台東茶區 Taimali: Jinzhenshan・Luye: Gaotai The daylily hill at Taimali, where you drink tea looking at the Pacific. On a clear day the ridge shows you Green Island and Orchid Island. Cherry blossom in winter, fireflies in summer, hot springs at the foot of the hill. 1 routes Day trip teas 1 屏東茶區 Manzhou Gangkou tea from Manzhou is the southernmost tea in Taiwan, grown in sea wind. It brews long, tastes strong, and carries a bitterness that turns sweet — nothing like a high-mountain oolong. Kenting is on the way.
The routes and sights are drawn from publicly published itineraries for each district and rewritten. **Opening hours, access and transport change — confirm with the operator or the authority before you travel.** Prices and phone numbers are deliberately left out; they go stale fastest.
Tea region map 113 origins on a real map, coloured by elevation Seasons The tea changes 24 times a year, with a sweet for each Tea personality Fifteen questions to the tea with your temperament Find Answer again when your taste shifts