Royal Mountain Scenic Area

Royal Mountain Scenic Area

The Royal Mountain Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

The Royal Mountain Scenic Area is situated within the territories of Huangshan Village, Bailong Village, Wutong Village, Guangming Village in Xixing Town, and Chenguang Village in Tuya Town, Pingchang County. It spans 12.6 square kilometers with a forest coverage rate of 70.6%. It serves as a holiday destination that combines cultural experiences such as the Fanship Jiaozi performance with tea tourism and wellness, and is currently rated as a 4A-level scenic area.

The Royal Mountain features undulating peaks, dense pine forests, and a crisscrossing network of reservoirs, ponds, and rivers, often referred to as the “Nine Bends and Eighteen Ravines.” In the early morning, wisps of mist drift through the mountains, covering the ridges and making the abrupt peaks stand like isolated islands, creating a rare low-altitude misty landscape known as the Royal Mountain Sea of Clouds. When the sun rises above the sea of clouds, sunlight filtering through the mist creates a rare atmospheric phenomenon called the “Drought Lotus,” especially visible in the Mia’erliang area, due to diffraction and diffuse reflection.

Tea cultivation has thrived in Royal Mountain since the Ming and Qing dynasties, and saw significant expansion after the 1970s. Over 6,000 acres of tea plantations stretch along the contours of the hills like leaping piano keys, performing a natural symphony of tea fragrance. The tea garden soil is rich in trace elements such as selenium, zinc, and iron. The tea is described as “highly aromatic, rich in flavor, long-lasting in brew, pleasant on the palate, and memorable,” and has been certified as organic tea by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It has won multiple gold awards at both international and domestic tea expos. In 2016, following public voting and expert evaluation, the China International Cooperation Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture – Tea Industry Committee and the Tourism Cooperation Committee of the Chinese Society of Cooperative Economics awarded the Royal Sparrow Tongue Organic Tea Garden the title of “One of China’s Thirty Most Beautiful Tea Gardens.”

The scenic area blends Ba culture and the ancient Chang’an Road culture, giving birth to the folk dance “Fanship Jiaozi.” In June 2008, it was included in the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the State Council. In 2009, Wu Huade, head of the Xixing Town Fanship Jiaozi Art Troupe, was appointed by the State Council as the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage “Fanship Jiaozi.”