陈升号 · Newsletter
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陈升号The Chen Sheng Hao story
One man’s search for the finest tea mountains became Chen Sheng Hao — and a 30-year promise to the village of Lao Ban Zhang.
1973 — Today
Our founder, Mr. Chen Shenghe, begins working in tea in his hometown of Shantou, Guangdong. In 1985 he moves his tea business to Shenzhen and devotes himself to tea research and trade.
He drives thousands of kilometres through the tea regions of southern Yunnan for nearly two months. Among the old-arbor trees, he finds what he has been looking for.
“I have walked a thousand mountains and rivers. Good tea needs green mountains and clear water.”
走遍千山万水，做茶要青山绿水。
— Chen Shenghe, founder
Mr. Chen buys more than 150 mu of land in Menghai County — China’s first county of pu-erh — and founds Menghai Chen Sheng Tea Co., Ltd. The brand carries his own name as a promise of quality.
In those first months he also buys the Lao Ban Zhang farmers’ entire unsold 2007 harvest — more than 10,000 kg of tea — helping the village through a hard year.
With government approval, we sign a 30-year agreement with Lao Ban Zhang village — the start of our “company + base + farmers” model. We build a first-processing workshop in the village and release our first Chen Sheng Lao Ban Zhang.
The road we funded into Lao Ban Zhang opens. More than a hundred villagers in festival dress line the road to celebrate “Chen Sheng Lao Ban Zhang Avenue”.
9 April: the Xishuangbanna Lao Ban Zhang Tea Research Association is founded at our factory, with Mr. Chen elected its president. The villagers honour him with the Hani people’s highest blessing, the thread-tying ceremony.
November: we sign a 50-year agreement with Banpo Laozhai, the old Hani village on Nannuo Mountain.
We sign a 30-year agreement with the Na Ka villagers on Mengsong Mountain, running from 2013 to 2042, with a first-processing workshop planned for the village. A few months later, in April 2013, tea from our Na Ka base wins the Tea King award at the 5th Menghai Tea King Festival.
In 1961 scientists found a wild tea tree more than 1,700 years old on Bada Mountain — living proof that tea began in China. When it fell in a storm in September 2012, Mr. Chen paid to cut a 5 km path through the forest, and 160 Hani villagers carried the trunk down the mountain by hand.
On 31 January 2013 the Tea King arrived at our Menghai factory, where it is preserved today.
At 5 a.m., Mr. Chen leads nearly 200 staff into our new phase-two factory. Machines now handle blending and stem-picking, and the leaf stays off the ground from withering to pressing — the “no-ground-contact” method we pioneered.
Chen Sheng Storage is founded in October. Its warehouses sit off the ground floor, away from ground moisture, with 24-hour temperature and humidity control, and every cake has its own barcode.
The same year, the new Lao Ban Zhang village gate, designed by the Hani people and built by Chen Sheng Hao, is completed.
We celebrate our 10th anniversary on 25 November with a blessing ceremony for the Tea King. Two days later we break ground on the Tea King Palace, built to display the ancient tree and Menghai’s tea culture.
The village and company celebrate ten years of partnership beneath the new gate. Chen Sheng #1 is named one of Yunnan’s Top 10 Famous Teas.
After ten years of learning to blend at his father’s side, Chen Liubin releases Lao Ban Zhang Fu Zi Qin — “Father and Son”.
Chen Sheng Lao Ban Zhang is named one of Yunnan’s Top 10 Famous Teas, following Chen Sheng #1 in 2018. In 2020, Ba Wang Qing Bing (Emperor) joins them, and our tea appears on CCTV-1.
Chen Sheng Tea is named a National Key Leading Enterprise in agricultural industrialisation. In 2022, our 15th year, Yunnan names us a specialised “Little Giant” enterprise.
More than 700 people gather at our Lao Ban Zhang base for the first Banzhang Ancient Tea Mountain Spring Tea Festival, with Hani, Lahu and Bulang villagers in festival dress.
We celebrate our 18th anniversary, and Chen Sheng Hao enters the 2025 China Tea Brand Top 50, with a brand value of ¥3.374 billion.
Our slogan is renewed as 做老树茶，专做好茶 — “Old-arbor tea. Only good tea.” In September we co-host the first Ripe Pu-erh Conference in Guangzhou, with three new ripe teas.
Today Chen Sheng Hao tea is poured in hundreds of brand stores and tea houses across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and travels to Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Chen Sheng Hao · Menghai, since 2007
What has never changed
Leaves from our base gardens, hand-picked from large-leaf arbor trees by farming families under long-term agreements.
Our “no-ground-contact” method keeps the leaf off the floor from withering to pressing.
Lab-checked batches, aged with round-the-clock temperature and humidity monitoring.
