Neipiao and Dapiao: The Instruction Sheets Inside Cakes and Tong

A traditional pu'er cake carries more than one piece of paper: the cotton paper on the outside, the neifei pressed into the tea, and often a slip of explanatory paper tucked between the cotton paper and the cake, called the "neipiao" (內票, inner ticket). One layer further out, seven cakes stack into a tong and 12 tong pack into a case, and the tong and the case each have their own paper too, which the tea world calls the "tong ticket" (筒票) or "dapiao" (大票, big ticket). Like instruction sheets, these papers explain a tea's background layer by layer.

The Neipiao: The Paper Inside the Cotton Wrapper

The neipiao is a piece of paper that isn't pressed into the tea but placed separately between the cotton paper and the cake. It's larger than the neifei, usually about as wide as the cake. Common contents include:

• The full name of the factory or company
• The brand trademark
• A factory introduction or product description
• Sometimes an address, product name, or recipe code

Compared with the neifei, the neipiao has room for more words, so older neipiao were often a short self-introduction from the factory. Some early neipiao were full of extravagant adjectives that today read more like the advertising language of their time; it's best to read them as historical documents.

Because the neipiao isn't pressed into the tea, it's easier to swap than the neifei. Its value lies in cross-checking with the rest of the packaging: if the brand on the cotton paper, the trademark on the neifei, and the company name on the neipiao all agree, the cake's packaging tells a consistent story.

Dapiao and Tong Tickets: Terms That Aren't Quite Standardized

Names in this area vary by region and by source:

In Chinese tea circles, "dapiao" mostly means the big sheet placed inside the tong, which is why some people say the tong ticket is the dapiao. On the other hand, Chan Kam Pong's English-language introduction to pu'er, published in 2006, uses dapiao for the sheet attached to the outside of a whole bamboo-basket case that lists the season's batch, quantity, tea type, and factory. Both usages are in circulation, so when you hear "dapiao," it's worth asking whether it means the one in the tong or the one on the case.

A dapiao or tong ticket commonly carries the factory name, product name, and recipe code, sometimes with batch or production details too. Teas produced directly by the Yunnan Tea Company after 1993 still used recipe codes such as 7581, 7542, and 8582 on their neifei and dapiao, which shows the dapiao was also a place where recipe codes were recorded. How to read recipe codes is in How Recipe Codes Work.

One more observation: English-language sources note that after 2000, noticeably fewer teas came with a tong ticket. Many new tong have only the bamboo sheath and tie, with the information concentrated on the cotton paper.

Can an Old Tea's Tickets Help Date It?

They can offer clues, but judgments should draw on several sources. A few common things to look at:

1. Company name: Factory names change with restructuring. Menghai Tea Factory became "Xishuangbanna Menghai Tea Industry Co., Ltd." in 1996 and went private in 2004; Kunming Tea Factory stopped production in 1992. The full company name printed on a ticket can help bracket a rough period.
2. Trademark: The Zhongcha brand, the Dayi brand, and each factory's own trademarks were used in different periods. The Dayi trademark came into use in 1988 and was formally registered in 1989. For the trademark's story, read The China Tea Company and the Origin of the Zhongcha Brand.
3. Paper and printing: Hand stamping, letterpress, offset, and color printing each have period characteristics, and the coarseness and thickness of paper also changed over time.
4. Typeface: Traditional or simplified characters, and changes in font.

But tickets are loose pieces of paper that can be moved on their own; old tickets paired with new tea and new tickets made to look old both happen. A ticket can tell you "the age of this piece of paper"; the tea's own vintage still depends on the cake's appearance, liquor color, and taste, and on whether the source is trustworthy. Methods for judging vintage are in How to Judge Vintage, and vintage periods in Hao-Grade, Yin-Grade, and Qizi Cakes.

How to Keep the Tickets You Receive

When buying a whole tong or case, keep the tong ticket, dapiao, and bamboo sheath as much as possible. When you open a tong, tuck the ticket outside the cotton paper of the first cake, or file it separately and note the purchase date and source. If you later want to share, sell, or compare the tea, these papers are more convincing than any verbal account. Tong and case formats are covered in Tong, Jian, and Ti.

FAQ

What is a dapiao? A dapiao is a large ticket that comes with a tong or a case of tea. In Chinese tea circles it usually means the sheet placed inside the tong, though some sources use it for the batch ticket attached to the outside of a whole case. It often lists the factory, product name, recipe code, or batch.

Is a tong ticket the same as a dapiao? They're often regarded as the same sheet: the ticket placed inside the tong is called a tong ticket by some and a dapiao by others. If dapiao refers to the batch ticket on the case, then they're two different papers.

What does a neipiao say? Usually the factory's full name, trademark, a factory introduction or product description, and sometimes an address, product name, or recipe code.

Can an old tea's tickets help date it? They can offer clues, such as the company name, trademark, printing method, and paper, but tickets can be swapped, so judge them together with the cake itself and its source.