As an office worker, I daydream from time to time.

I daydream I could retire early to an idyllic corner in China, where I would meditate early morning, sip tea and talk, watch the day go by in a stroll.

Where would I go?

Hangzhou is the tea capital of China, but it is commercial and touristy. Lhasa is the spiritual heart of Buddhism, but it can be harsh and remote.

Then there is Wuyi Mountain: the world depository of tea plants. And at the top of my mind: Yellow Mountain (Huangshan).

Yellow Mountain is the tallest mountain range in Eastern China, with the highest peaks reaching 1,864 meters. Alongside Guilin, it is considered by many to be the most spectacular of Chinese landscape.

Great scenic mountains produce great teas. This saying is nowhere truer than Yellow Mountain.

It nurtures 4 of 10 Famous Chinese Teas:

• Taiping Houkui green tea

• Huangshan Maofeng green tea

• Liuan Guapian green tea

• Keemun red tea

Although Houkui tea is the youngest of the Famous 10, he was the first to win international acclaim.

It joined the celebrity circus in 1915 when it won the gold medal in Panama Pacific Exposition and became the first tea to win an international award in modern China.

The award-winning Houkui tea came from the famous villages of Houkeng, Hougang and Yanjiacun.

The tea gardens reside at an altitude of 700 meters, surrounded on its 3 sides by the scenic Taiping Lake. It is an out-of-this-world paradise. Breathtakingly beautiful.

When HQ visited, he too was impressed.

He is not easy to please. His family owns 3 tea gardens in the most pristine part of Lion Peak Mountain. That is the benchmark he is comparing against.

Despite its natural beauty, Taiping Lake is still not widely known in China. It probably is just a matter of time. The Lake has recently been voted as the most scenic Lake resort.

In the world of Houkui tea, size matters. The larger, the better.

In fact, the word Houkui means Monkey Chief. So called because it is made from the largest and stoutest tea shoots from the Monkey villages.

It is one of those few teas that I get easily excited about.

While Eastern China is dominated by small-leaf varieties, the Houkui tea plant produces enormous leaves of up to 15 centimeters, which shrink to half the length after processing.

Can you believe it? The harvesting takes place over just 2 weeks in the spring. It takes only a few days for these tea shoots to become this big!

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