Hsinchu Tea Region
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.
Itineraries2
- Half a day on Beipu old streetDay tripCitian Temple → the Chiang A-hsin mansion → Tianshui Hall → the Jinguangfu compound → street food → pounding your own lei-cha → tasting at the tea shopsChiang A-hsin is the man who took the bitten-leaf tea to Taipei for judging in 1933 and sold it at a thousand yuan a hundred catties. It is in the timeline.
- Emei gardens and Lion’s Head mountainDay tripFuxing tea exhibition centre → the Xu Yao-liang tea estate → around Emei lake → Lion’s Head visitor centre → the Xiexin tea house → Shitoushan trailThe Xiexin tea house is a converted primary school serving Oriental Beauty and Hakka food. April–May puts you in the best spot for tung blossom.
Sights and trails
A first-grade heritage site. Jinguangfu was the company that opened this land in the Qing: *guang* for Cantonese, and the Hokkien partner in the name. The plaque over the door is the evidence of that joint venture.
The lake circuit takes about two hours, with a giant Maitreya on an island in the middle. Fuxing old street is far quieter than Beipu.
Things you can do yourself
Tea, sesame and peanuts ground to a paste in a clay mortar with a wooden pestle, then loosened with hot water. Plenty of shops on Beipu old street do it without booking, and yes, your arm will ache.
An award-laden Oriental Beauty factory. It opens for processing visits and tastings from 20 May to 20 June and during the competition season; ask first at other times.
It has a brewing area, a processing area and displays. The speciality is tea-baked eggs, whole eggs buried in leaf and baked; the method is on the recipes page.