I was recently back in Shi Tou Zhai and, since I had a camera with me, took a few pictures of the slowly crumbling Nan Nuo Shan Cha Chang that I have written about before (see this post for a brief history of the factory and the man behind it Bai Meng Yu).

The upper floor of the larger ‘L’ shaped building that was erected in the 1970’s.

The picture below shows one of the earliest buildings extant. It is of brick construction with adobe brick infill which has recently fallen or been pulled down.

Behind this building, a little further down the slope is a generator house which still houses two generators, probably from the 70’s. Other equipment was apparently pilfered.

People have told me that the original equipment: rolling machines, generator, drying ovens, etc. that were brought from Rangoon in the 1930’s, were taken down to Menghai as late as the 1990’s, but a recent visit to Menghai Tea Factory to see them was not fruitful.

Somebody was pulled out of an office somewhere to feed me some cock & bull story about how they too did not know where any of the machines were, but if I find them, they would also like to know.

Withering troughs on the ground floor of the newer building. Nan Nuo Shan Tea Factory focused on black and green tea production and black tea was for some time a significant export.

There has recently been a black tea revival on Nan Nuo Shan, but I have yet to come across any top grade dian hong.

See here for a subsequent post: