Yiwu's Old Tea Houses: Tongqing, Songpin, Cheshun, and Fuyuanchang

In pu'er collecting circles, "Hao-grade tea" is practically a byword for legend. These teas came from private tea firms of the late Qing through the Republican era, and the ones mentioned most often are a few old houses on Yiwu's main street: Tongqing Hao, Songpin Hao, Fuyuanchang Hao, and Cheshun Hao. For where Hao-grade tea fits among the eras of vintage pu'er, start with Hao-Grade, Yin-Grade, and Qizi Bing.

What "Hao" Means: How the Old Houses Operated

"Hao" (號) simply means a trading house. From the Qing to the Republic, most tea firms in the Yiwu and Yibang area were opened by merchants from elsewhere, many of them from Shiping in Yunnan. Their business worked roughly like this:

• Buying tea: They bought sun-dried maocha from farmers on the surrounding mountains; some firms also had their own tea gardens.
• Making tea: They hired workers to sort the leaves and steam them, pressed them into round cakes with stone molds, then after drying stacked 7 cakes to a tong and wrapped them in bamboo husk.
• Anti-counterfeiting: Each cake had a neifei (embedded ticket) printed with the firm's name, and each tong included a neipiao (inner ticket) describing the firm and its raw material. The more famous the firm, the more counterfeits, and the neipiao was the anti-counterfeiting method of the day.
• Distribution: Caravans carried the tea to Pu'er, Simao, and Kunming, or along southern trade routes on to Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia.

The Qing rule taxing tea at "seven rounds to a tong" made 7 cakes per tong a packaging habit that continues to this day.

Tongqing Hao

Many regard Tongqing Hao as the quintessential old Yiwu tea house. The common account is that it was founded by the Liu family, by one account in 1736 (early in the Qianlong reign); some researchers argue there's no primary documentation for that date and that its heyday was really in the late Qing and early Republic. Collectors often refer to different periods of Tongqing Hao by the design on the neipiao, such as "Double Lion Tongqing" and "Dragon Horse Tongqing."

Songpin Hao

Songpin Hao was run by the Song family of Shiping. There are two accounts of its founding: one says 1880 (the Guangxu era); another says it was first opened in Yibang during the Tongzhi era (around the 1860s) and later moved its tea making to Yiwu. In the early Republic, Songpin Hao merged through marriage with Qianlizhen Hao, also in Yiwu, and its later tea was called "Qianlizhen Songpin Hao." Songpin Hao's neipiao came in red and blue, which collectors call "Red Label" and "Blue Label." Incidentally, the "Song" in Songpin is a family name and has nothing to do with the Song dynasty.

Fuyuanchang Hao

Fuyuanchang was founded by Yu Fusheng in the late 19th century. It closed for a time at the end of the Qing and reopened on Yiwu's main street in 1921. Some sources record that in 1929 Fuyuanchang produced about 500 dan a year, and it was ranked with Tongqing Hao and Songpin Hao as the "three great tea houses of Yiwu." Fuyuanchang's tea used Yiwu large-leaf material, with broad, flat leaf strands and thick, large leaves.

Cheshun Hao

Cheshun Hao was run by the Che family of Yiwu. A story circulating in the tea world says the Che family once sent fine tea to the court as tribute and was awarded a plaque reading "Ruigong Tianchao" (Auspicious Tribute to the Celestial Court), which spread its fame far and wide. The story comes mostly from local oral tradition and tea merchants' retellings, with many different dates given, so it's best enjoyed as a tea mountain legend.

Why Is Hao-Grade Tea So Expensive?

• Extremely little survives: The tea firms closed one after another around 1950, and intact cakes that have survived nearly a century of storage can be counted on your fingers.
• Impossible to replicate: The raw material, craftsmanship, and storage history all belong to that era; there's no way to make an identical cake again.
• Historical significance: Hao-grade teas are the last representatives of pu'er before it moved from private tea firms to state-owned tea factories.

Auction records show how rare they are: at the 2019 spring sale of Hong Kong's Shihong Auction, a tong of 7 "Blue Label Songpin Hao" cakes sold for HK$15.605 million; at its autumn sale the same year, a single "Red Label Songpin Hao" cake sold for HK$3.5 million. Taiwanese media also reported that at China Guardian's 2013 autumn auction, a tong of Fuyuanchang sold for RMB 10.35 million. These are the hammer prices of specific lots and don't represent going market prices.

Collectors also love giving hao-grade teas titles. The ones heard most often call Fuyuanchang the "Tea King" and Tongqing Hao the "Tea Queen." But these are names used by the market and the media, and there's no single accepted version: some auction reports call Red Label Songpin Hao the Tea King. When you hear "Tea King" or "Tea Queen," just think of it as a collectors' nickname; to compare old teas, go back to concrete clues like the tea house, era, packaging, and storage.

Is Today's "Tongqing Hao" Still the Original Firm?

The original private tea firms closed one after another around the 1950s, and pu'er production was taken over by state-owned tea factories. Most of the new teas on the market today bearing the names Tongqing Hao, Songpin Hao, or Fuyuanchang are trademarks registered later or "reissue" products, and in most cases have no direct line of succession from the original firms. In the 1990s, Taiwanese tea people went to Yiwu, found old masters who had once worked at the old tea houses, and asked them to make handmade tea again using traditional methods. That story is in Pu'er and Taiwan.

So when you see the words "Tongqing Hao" or "Songpin Hao," first figure out whether it's a century-old tea or a new tea borrowing an old name. Be especially careful with products claiming to be Hao-grade vintage tea at a low price.

FAQ

Does Tongqing Hao still exist? The original Tongqing Hao tea house closed long ago. Teas sold under the Tongqing Hao name today are mostly later-registered trademarks or reissue products, and in most cases have no line of succession from the original firm.

Is Fuyuanchang a tea factory? Fuyuanchang was a private tea firm in Yiwu in the late Qing and Republican era, founded by Yu Fusheng and reopened in 1921. It was a family-run trading house, different from the later state-owned tea factories.

Is Songpin Hao tea from the Song dynasty? No. "Song" is the surname of the family that ran it. Songpin Hao was founded between the Tongzhi and Guangxu eras of the Qing, and the teas that appear at auction are mostly labeled as dating from around the 1920s.

Why is Hao-grade tea so expensive? Very little survives, it can't be replicated, and it represents the era before state-owned tea factories, so it often sells at auction for millions to over ten million Hong Kong dollars.