Beijing Hotels: Nearby Taiping Houkui Tea Shop

Tai Ping Hou Kui, or Monkey Chief, is another kind of green tea, which is also listed as The Ten Great Chinese Teas.

It first caught my attention because of its weird name. At the beginning,  I even thought the tea leaves are picked up by monkey. But it is totally not the truth

Let's talk about its name original story. Once upon a time, a three-member white monkey family lived in Yellow Mountain. But one day, the kid monkey got lost in the Tai Ping village at the foot of Huangshan. Father Monkey came to look for it but without luck, ending in death in a mountain valley. Later, a farmer passed by and found its body. He kindly buried the monkey. Next year the farmer came again and found the place where he buried the monkey has grew up many green tea trees. At that time, a voice filled the valley, saying "This is the reward for your kind behavior and with these tea, you will have noting to worry about".

But story is just story. In fact, the tea is named after Hou Keng, the place where the tea was first made famous. While Kui comes from the name of the tea farmer - Wang Kui Chen - who invented it in the early 19th century. Tai Ping Hou Kui tea gained celebrity status in 1915, when it won the gold medal in an international exposition. It is the first tea to win an international award in China.