Top food recommendation for Hunan tourism[Photo Gallery]
 2017-05-21 16:19:53   Zhangjiajie Toptourism Website  

Yueyang food recommendation

Baling Fishing Banquet

With fish from Dongting Lake as the raw material, the banquet consists of more than 20 fish dishes.

Zhang Guying Oily Bean Curd

Made of soy beans produced by Zhang Guying Village, camellia oil from Weidong Township, and water from Longxian Well, it looks golden in color, soft and amaze in taste.

Junshan Silver Needle Tea

Reputed as “Champion of yellow tea”, it has a wonderful bouquet, which shows repeated scenting, and produces a liquor that is truly delicious.

Junshan Yinzhen (Simplified Chinese:君山银针, "Silver Needle(s) of the Gentleman Mountain") is a Yellow tea produced from Junshan Island of Hunan Province.

Junshan Yinzhen, the yellow tea, is the most exclusive tea among its group of tea. When brew in a glass, the leaf which looks just like the sword moving up and down is described as ‘Silent bamboo forest’. Junshan Yinzhen is the produce using the tea leaves from the tea garden at the Junshan Island, which is located in the middle part of Dongting Lake.

It is said that the best time to harvest the best quality bud for Junshan Yinzhen is the period lasting 14 days in total through the whole year, which falls between 4 days before Qing Ming, occurring on April 4 (Leap years) or April 5 (Other years) of the Gregorian calendar and 10 days after Qingming. The first bud in spring comes with so-called Yu Yue, the tiny leaf attached to the bud, that is to protect bud from cold temperature. This naturally made cover could be a good indication to recognize the high quality Junshan Yinzhen.

To process Yellow Tea, the tea leaf must undergo the unique step called Men-huang, the smothering process which is the slow oxidation process of tea polyphenols such as catechin. As a result, it produces bright yellow color, refreshing flavor and sweet and mellow taste that are the characteristics of yellow tea. Junshan Island produces Junshan Yinzhen in green tea type as well. Sometimes, this is sold as yellow tea in oversea market, as their selling price is cheaper.

Junshan Yinzhen has been produced long time ago, during Tang Dynasty. In the past, the production of tea was only about 0.5 kg per year, up to date, the production only increased to 300kg per year.

In the history, it was believed that during Tang Dynasty, when Wencheng princess married to Tibet, she picked the Junshan tea as one of her trousseau. Junshan Yinzhen became the tribute to emperor since Wu-dai (The Dynasty after Tang), and continued during Song, Ming and Qing Dynasty. During Tang Dynasty, Junshan Yinzhen was called "Yellow tail leathers" (Huang Ling Mao), because when brewed, the yellow bud covered with down was standing up in the glass just like yellow pinion. As recorded in the book Cha-Jing (The Tea Scripture written by Lu Yu)， during Song Dynasty, it was known as "White crane tail leathers" (Bai He Ling), because of this tea was planted at the White Crane Temple (Bai He Si), when brewed using water from White Crane Well (Bai He Jing), it looked like White Crane walking in the water. Besides, because of its white down, it was also called "White down needle" (Bai Mao Jian). It was named as Junshan Yinzhen during Qing Dynasty.

Junshan Yinzhen has won the Gold Prize in year 1956 at the Leipzig Expo； its beautiful appearance and tasting note get a favorable opinion by the people.

In 1957, it was selected as one of the Top Ten tea in China.

In 1972, when China re-gained a chair as a permanent member of United Nation Security Council, Junshan Yinzhen became the only tea to serve the Prime Ministers and Diplomatic Envoys from various countries.

Since 1980, it has been prized as the high grade tea in Hunan Province.

In 1982, it was appraised as the top quality tea by the Commercial Section in China，and in the following year (1983), Junshan Yinzhen was certified as the high grade tea by the Foreign Trade Department of China.

In 2006, Junshan Yinzhen has been selected by the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministryas the National Gift Tea to Russia President Vladimir Putin.