Guizhou III - Jiaoyao Village
A major highlight of this visit was the trek up the narrow, winding mountain road to the very remote village of Jiaoyao (脚尧村) located in the Leigong mountains (雷公山 Lei gong shan). This is the homeplace of where 雷山银球 Leishan Yin Qiu (Leishan Silver Ball - hand-rolled green tea) is made.
View looking down on the village from above. It is really an incredibly remote spot in southern China.
We were met by Yang Shengming 杨胜明 (Cho Cho) who showed us to our lovely, newly completed accommodations and then gave us a tour of the village before taking us to lunch. He would be our guide over the next two days.
Jiaoyao is one of the places on this planet that seems both inviting and also mysterious. It is held captive by the mountains, the mist and the difficult, narrow and winding road that was carved out by the people living there.
We were afforded the opportunity to walk to the tea fields and Cho Cho pointed out all the local plant species, and what they were good for (eating, medicine, etc.). It was a richly inherited history that he shared with us. We spent a couple of hours plucking tea leaves to make our own black tea. On the way back to the village we were encouraged to forage from these particular plants to make up part of our dinner. We even toured the factory and saw the process for making green and black tea.
The next morning we rose early to climb the rest of the way up the nearby mountains to a lookout where we could watch the sunrise. The challenging road we had driven up the day before was even more narrow and unpaved – but the climb was definitely worth it.
After breakfast and several tea tastings, we headed back to the village and visited the community centre and learned how to roll the famous Silver ball green tea. The area is also a nature preserve and the centre has samples of some of the important plants from the area.
I wish to thank Cho Cho and everyone in the village who made us feel welcome. I will never forget the generosity of your knowledge and your time in showing us so much about your culture, your natural environment and your tea. Not only is this one of the most beautiful places I’ve been on this planet, but the people were extraordinarily nice. I really hope I get the opportunity to return.
I have posted four short videos of Jiaoyao on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DebbyDonnelly/shorts
