Head to Pinglin for winter tea and glutinous rice balls, and stand a chance to win free plane tickets

Rich and fragrant winter tea is back on the market again！ The “2009 Taipei County Pinglin Baozhong Tea Festival” and the “Fall in Love with Camellias” event, jointly organized by Taipei County Government and Pinglin Township Office, will be held on December 5 & 6 and December 12 & 13 at the Shui-liu-jiao shopping district, the Pinglin Tea Industry Museum, and the historic Pinglin Old Street. This year, visitors can not only be among the first to taste the rich flavors of winter tea but also enjoy tea art showcases from Japan and Korea, as well as a unique “Winter Tea and Camellia Exhibition”!

Pinglin Township is famous for its “Wenshan Baozhong Tea.” To enhance the economic value of the tea, tea competitions are held in both spring and winter. The winter competition begins with sampling in late October and concludes in mid-November, including judging, packaging, and award ceremonies. The hilly terrain of Pinglin, with its warm, humid climate and fertile, organic-rich soil, is ideal for cultivating premium Baozhong Tea. Among the five seasonal harvests in a year, winter tea — also known as “tail water tea” — offers a delicate flavor that is sweeter and more robust than spring tea. To improve the tea-making skills and quality of local farmers, Pinglin Township holds an annual winter tea competition, and the awards ceremony is always a highlight of the event.

This year’s Baozhong Tea Festival also features guides at the Pinglin Old Street, Shui-liu-jiao Characteristic Shopping District, and Jinguailiao Bicycle Paradise, offering insights to help visitors better understand Pinglin. Local Pinglin restaurants have created healthy and nutritious tea-infused dishes using Pinglin Baozhong Tea and regional ingredients. This year, they are premiering “Japanese-style tea cuisine” and “Korean-style tea cuisine,” offering unique and refreshing flavors.

During the event, anyone who spends NT$100 in Pinglin can enter to win major prizes such as round-trip plane tickets between Taipei and Macau, LCD TVs, high-end bedside speakers, digital cameras, mobile phones, fans, “Tea Township Camellia Oil Noodles,” photo packages at Ai Wei Wedding Photography, and more. There will also be 5,000 free samples of Gui Crown’s “Baozhong Tea Glutinous Rice Balls,” daily giveaways of camellia saplings, and 8,000 exquisite tea-tasting souvenir cups for visitors. Additionally, the “Camellia Bookmark Hunt” sticker-card game lets participants collect stamps and keep memories of Pinglin through designer bookmarks — limited to 2,000 per day while supplies last.

For a deeper experience of the tea countryside, join the “Pinglin Half-Day Tour,” which includes tasting authentic “local tea cuisine” and enjoying the beautiful mountain and water scenery of Pinglin. Other activities include the “Camellia Lovers’ Cooking Competition” and the “Flowers of Pinglin Photography Contest,” both with prize money of up to NT$10,000. Visitors can also take free shuttle buses from the Xindian MRT Station (every 30 minutes), Kunyang MRT Station, and Fuzhong MRT Station (every hour). The first 120 passengers at each of these three stations receive a NT$60 event spending voucher. For more details, contact the Pinglin Township Office Tourism Section at (02) 2665-7251 or visit the event website.

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