Pinghe Baiya Qilan

When it comes to Fujian oolong teas, the first that come to mind are Anxi Tieguanyin and Yongchun Foshou. But in the small town of Pinghe, there's also a famous oolong tea — Baiya Qilan.

Baiya Qilan is a variety of tea, and behind it lies a story that spans from one man, one tree, to a variety, and then to an entire industry.

The story goes back to an autumn day in 1981, when He Jineng, a tea farmer from Pengxi Village — our protagonist — discovered 13 seed-propagated tea bushes in his vegetable garden by the Pengxi Pit bank, an ancestral piece of land. Among them was one old tea tree that stood out from the rest. This tree was particularly vigorous, growing up to 1.7–1.8 meters tall with a trunk girth of 2.5–3 meters. Its new shoots were lush, and the young buds had clearly visible white fuzz.

Growing up in a family of tea growers, he had a keen eye for tea plants. He immediately sensed that this tree was different, so he picked its leaves and processed a sample batch. To his great delight, the resulting tea had an exceptionally fragrant and rich aroma, carrying a unique orchid-like floral note. Its taste was mellow, smooth, and gentle — truly a premium-grade tea. Later, the tea produced from this old tree was named “Baiya Qilan” (White Sprout Qilan).

Thanks to He Jineng’s efforts, after 1989, the cultivation and promotion of Baiya Qilan tea seedlings gradually expanded on a large scale. Statistics show that from autumn 1986 to 1995, Pinghe County cultivated a total of 15.6 million tea seedlings. Of these, over 5,600 acres were planted within the county, while 1.686 million seedlings (approximately 500 acres) were introduced to other provinces and counties. Baiya Qilan became a significant symbol of Pinghe County, and helped establish it as one of Fujian’s five most renowned teas, alongside Anxi Tieguanyin and Yongchun Foshou.