Chibi (Red Cliff)

Chibi ("Red Cliff") is a county-level city in southern Hubei, the historical centre of Hubei's heicha production. In 1736 the merchant Lei Zhongwan opened the first Chibi heicha factory at Yangloudong; the result, a coarse-leaf brick tea called Laoqingzhuang, became part of the bulk export trade through the Hankou tea market that supplied Mongolia, Russia, and the New World — at one point in the late 1800s, 60% of Chinese tea exported left through Hankou.