I went to Fangcun Tea market, the biggest tea market in China a few weeks ago. I had a great time and found interesting and amazing teas. I finally was able to put some of the teas up for sale on ebay (seller harmonicminor) I also wrote a bit about the trip here. If you want the complete article, plus pictures, please email me at snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com.
The tea market there is called Fangcun, Fragrant Village, and market is a misnomer- it is more like a hodgepodge of markets. The building above {not shown here} houses perhaps a hundred small shops, each focusing on a narrow slice of the Chinese domestic tea industry: some shops sell Yixing teapots, some only Tieguanyin oolong, some only Dancong Oolong, some only bags for packaging teas, some only tea trays and other wood accessories, etc. Besides the building above, there are about ten other buildings all housing businesses related to tea. In total, there are over 700 businesses with shops in Fangcun?s various tea markets. Fangcun started as a jasmine tea trading center. It grew throughout the 80?s and 90?s, expanding into other tea markets. It is now dominated by Pu?er tea. This represents a break from other products where people sell what their family has sold in the past. If your parents grow chilies, guess what? You will be a chili farmer! If your family lives in Anxi, Fujian you consider yourself lucky because you have some relatives who grow tea, which, inevitably is Anxi Tieguanyin, and will fetch a much higher price at the market than Zunyi Maofeng green tea, because the Zunyi Maofeng is not famous. But many of the vendors from Fujian or Guangdong also sell Pu?er, which is from Yunnan. Why? Because in the past five years, as some Chinese have made small fortunes and needed ways to protect and build their wealth, they turned to Pu?er as an investment vehicle. (It used to be very cheap and it only gets more valuable with time, so it?s a no brainer, right?) So Pu?er prices increased dramatically and then the bubble burst last year- it seems the investors found better returns elsewhere. If you are a Pu?er lover, Fangcun has a lot to offer, including Pu?er reminiscent of Bai Hao Oolong, or Oriental Beauty, and Pu?er buds, which I enjoyed drinking. Besides Pu?er tea, you can find Oolong tea from Fujian (Tieguanyin and Yancha, esp. Da Hong Pao) and Guangdong (the incredibly fragrant Fenghuang Dancong). I even tried a white tea from Tibet (very wheaty) and an oolong that needs to be kept in the freezer (great fragrance, but short shelf life).