Is Xinzhai Coffee Good?_How is Xinzhai Small Bean Coffee_Introduction to Xinzhai Coffee Varieties and Cultivation

Xinzhai Village sits between the towering Gaoligong Mountains and the rushing Nujiang River, and its story is inseparable from the coffee that surrounds it.

Entering a Beautiful, Livable Homeland

When the spring breeze of April greens the earth, Lujiangba in Baoshan enjoys clear skies and lush vegetation. Taking advantage of the Qingming Festival holiday, several photographers from the Yunnan Photographer Qualification Training Station visited Xinzhai Village in Lujiang Town, Baoshan, a place renowned for its rich ethnic customs and known far and wide as "China's No. 1 Coffee Village," tucked between the Gaoligong Mountains and the winding Nujiang River.

Our car traveled from Baoshan City along Provincial Highway 230 from south to north for about 70 kilometers. A huge stone stood on the left side of the road, carved with three large characters reading "Xinzhai Village." Following the sign, we turned left onto a newly built, wide cement road that led straight to the village.

Walking into Xinzhai Village, known as "Little Hong Kong," what caught our eyes were rows of neat small buildings and bungalows, with flat cement roads reaching every doorstep and thousands of mu of coffee plantation all around, giving the whole village a character of its own. The village comprises 9 village groups, including Xinzhai, Mangchang, and Xiaoqiaotou, with 502 households and over 2,000 people. Every household grows coffee, and the village's total coffee planting area exceeds 10,000 mu, generating economic value of over 42 million yuan, with per capita income from coffee reaching 8,600 yuan. The villagers live comfortably.

In the 1960s, the song "Beautiful and Rich Lujiangba" became popular nationwide. In recent years, Lujiang Town has pursued a strategy of distinctive urbanization, steadily improving the town's carrying capacity, cohesion, and reach through planning guidance, industrial support, innovation, and people-centered livelihood work. In early 2016, the town was named among the third batch of 42 beautiful livable towns in China, making it the third established town in Yunnan Province to receive the "Livable Town" demonstration designation, and that list includes "Little Hong Kong" Xinzhai Village.

Observing the 10,000-Mu Coffee Garden of Xinzhai

On the afternoon we arrived in Xinzhai Village from Kunming by car, the enthusiastic village committee director Li Guangqiang took us to visit the 10,000-mu coffee garden. We walked along the bicycle race track built within the coffee garden, coffee trees heavy with fruit on both sides. Each plump, round coffee cherry resembled a Baoshan Nanhong agate, clustered along the long, flexible branches. As gentle breezes blew, strings of coffee cherries swayed gracefully, a truly magnificent sight.

According to reports, Xinzhai Village lies in Lujiangba at the foot of the Gaoligong Mountains and at the end of the Nujiang Grand Canyon, with an elevation of 900-1,450 meters. The terrain is mainly mountainous and sloped, with significant variation, fertile soil, abundant sunshine, moderate rainfall, and large temperature differences between day and night. These natural conditions created the three distinctive quality traits of Baoshan small-grain coffee beans: strong but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with a slight fruity acidity. One sniff makes people fall in love, and one sip leaves an unforgettable impression. It is reported that at the International Coffee Tasting Conference held in London in 1958, Baoshan small-grain coffee, represented by Lujiang coffee, was rated as first-class and shook the world. In 1980, Baoshan was listed as one of the national coffee production bases. In 1992, at the first China Agricultural Expo, the coffee selected by Baoshan won the highest award. In 1993, at the World Coffee Exhibition held in Brussels, Baoshan Lujiang small-grain coffee won the world "Eureka" Gold Award. World-class coffee experts from Brazil and elsewhere unanimously praised Baoshan's cultivation level and intrinsic quality as world-class. Lujiangba small-grain coffee is internationally named "China Baoshan Small-Grain Coffee," making it one of the few agricultural specialty products from China recognized worldwide.

There is a small story behind the cultivation of Baoshan small-grain coffee. It is said that in the mid-1950s, the patriotic overseas Chinese Liang Jinshan introduced the first coffee seedling from Southeast Asia and planted it in Baoshan City. By the 1960s, the "educated youth" sent to support the frontier began large-scale planting in Lujiangba, mainly handing the harvest over to the state at that time.

By the early 1990s, Yunnan had become China's largest coffee export base, with its export volume accounting for 95% of the national total. At this point, the villagers of Xinzhai Village cut down almost every crop except coffee and planted coffee instead. The village's coffee planting area has since reached over 10,000 mu, with an annual output of over 2,000 tons in 2015 and per capita income from coffee exceeding 10,000 yuan.

Walking the Natural Bicycle Race Track

The car drove along the bicycle race track with coffee trees passing by on both sides. Accompanied by the dust stirred up by the car, the "2015 China Baoshan Lujiangba Second Coffee Culture Tourism Festival" mountain bike cross-country race seemed to be underway all over again.

On the afternoon of December 5, 2015, another event of the Second Coffee Culture Tourism Festival, the mountain bike cross-country race, was held in the 10,000-mu coffee garden of Xinzhai. 141 participants from across the country rode through the garden, staging a battle of speed and passion. Starting from the Xinzhai Village Cultural Square, participants passed through Xingfeng Zhuang, Laoshuijing Team, and Daheng Mountain, reaching the finish line back at the Xinzhai Village Cultural Square. On the 10-kilometer circular route, everyone chased one another in an exciting contest, and the female riders proved every bit the equal of the men. The scene was bustling with cheers, applause, and the steady sound of elephant-foot drums, creating an extraordinarily lively atmosphere. Zhao Jiaxin, a participant from Changning County, said: "This is a completely new experience, with green coffee trees as far as the eye can see, which feels great. Even in winter, the temperature here is close to 20°C, very suitable for cycling."

Wang Jiawei, the village secretary, explained that to further promote ethnic culture, improve people's physical and mental health, advocate low-carbon living and green transportation, and let more people appreciate the unique natural beauty, cultural beauty, customs, and produce of Lujiangba, the route for the Baoshan Lujiangba Coffee Journey Tourism Festival mountain bike cross-country race was chosen to run through the entire coffee planting area of "China's No. 1 Coffee Village," allowing every participant to return to nature and enjoy sweating to their heart's content, fulfilling every cycling enthusiast's dream. Through events like this, the town creates momentum through festivals, promotes tourism through that momentum, attracts investment through tourism, and benefits farmers through business. The two coffee festivals already held have helped further promote Xinzhai coffee, with the ultimate goal of bringing the Coffee Journey Tourism Festival, the mountain bike cross-country race, and Baoshan coffee to the whole country and to the world.

Exploring the Mysteries of the Gaoligong Mountains

The Gaoligong Mountains Primitive Forest Reserve is a paradise for flora and fauna and a wonderful destination for tourism and photography. On the second day after arriving in Xinzhai Village, village secretary Wang Jiawei, forest ranger Xiao Yang, and other villagers took us in two off-road vehicles up a dirt road that had been cleared by a bulldozer just a month earlier, heading for the reserve.

The Gaoligong Mountains are an endless range, lush green as far as the eye can see, with valleys shrouded in clouds and mist. Countless majestic, peculiar, steep, and beautiful landscapes shaped by nature, splashing galaxies, strange peaks and rocks, stone gate passes, and canyon wall shadows among them, made us feel as if we were in a fairyland.

Belonging to the southern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the western fault zone of the Hengduan Mountains, and the suture zone where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide and subduct, the Gaoligong Mountains are a famous deep, large, faulted longitudinal valley area. Its northern section lies within the Tibet Autonomous Region, where it is known as the Boshula Range, with the range running northwest. After entering Gongshan Dulong and Nujiang Autonomous County in Yunnan, it is called the Gaoligong Mountains, running north to south with an average elevation of about 3,500 meters. The northern section is higher, with elevations above 4,000 meters. Because it connects to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the north and the Indochina Peninsula to the south, it shows transitional characteristics from south to north in both its weather and its biology. The Gaoligong Mountains are therefore called the "World Natural Museum" and the "World Species Gene Bank." The "plant living fossil" tree fern supports a world of its own, continuing the green dream of the dinosaurs; the "World Rhododendron King," whose oldest tree reaches over 280 years of age, occupies 500 square meters. The range shelters more than 20 species of nationally first-class protected animals, including takin, slow loris, green peafowl, white-browed gibbon, and Bengal tiger, and is also known as a paradise of wild animals, with titles such as "paradise of pheasants and magpies," "birthplace of mammalian ancestors," and "cradle of East Asian flora." In 1986, the Gaoligong Mountains were listed as a national nature reserve. In 1992, the Gaoligong Mountains National Nature Reserve was listed as Class A, the most important category of nature reserve globally, by the World Wildlife Fund. In 2000, UNESCO officially approved the reserve as a member of the World Biosphere Reserve Network.

Seeking New Destinations for Bird Watching and Photography

The Gaoligong Mountains have long been known as the "World Species Gene Bank," the "World Natural Museum," a "refuge for life," a "paradise of wild animals," the "birthplace of mammalian ancestors," the "cradle of East Asian flora," and "humanity's double-sided bookshelf." Among these riches, more than 400 species of birds have made the range an excellent destination for bird watchers and photographers.

For bird watching and photography in the Gaoligong Mountains, enthusiasts all know a place called Baihualing. The bird watching spots in Baihualing are scattered through the jungle, with about 10 points in total. Locals first noticed many beautiful small birds bathing in water puddles while they were watering sheep. As bird lovers began visiting, locals built nearby sheds so photographers could watch and photograph the birds up close. With the steady stream of visitors, Baihualing has gained prominence.

In fact, Xinzhai, adjacent to Baihualing, is leveraging its special geographic advantages to create a new five-star sanctuary for photography enthusiasts to watch and photograph birds.

FrontStreet Coffee roasts Yunnan small-grain coffee alongside the better-known origins, so the province that surrounds Xinzhai Village is easy to explore from a single bag.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The coffee that fills Xinzhai's 10,000-mu garden is Yunnan small-grain, the local name for Arabica, and the bean most responsible for putting Baoshan on the map. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-grain coffee comes from the Baoshan region and is washed and roasted to a medium level. In the cup it shows soft nut and chocolate sweetness with a light plum-like acidity, and it remains the most affordable way to meet Yunnan coffee for the first time. For a fuller picture of the province, FrontStreet's 2013 sun-dried Typica comes from the company's own estate, planted in 2013 to trace the region's roots. Typica is one of the oldest and purest Arabica varieties and the first coffee the French missionaries brought to Yunnan, so the estate uses only fully ripe red cherries and dries them in the whole fruit before roasting to medium. Dark berry notes, caramel sweetness, chocolate, and a touch of dried apricot lead into a black-tea finish, and the balance is noticeably more focused than the entry-level cup.

To taste Yunnan in espresso form, FrontStreet's Black Cocoa blend combines Yunnan small-grain coffee with Brazil Cerrado. The Brazilian side supplies mixed-nut aroma and an even body, while the Yunnan lot handles the chocolate and citrus. As an Americano it stays balanced across acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, with nut and brown-sugar sweetness; with milk it turns smooth and buttery, showing almond and cream. It is a gentle introduction for beginners and a neat demonstration of how much the Yunnan terroir contributes once it shares a blend.