Simao City (Pu

The 2007 renaming of Simao to “Pu’er City” is a textbook case of geographical indication politics in the tea industry: the city that was renamed had historically been a center of the puerh trade (it was the staging post for the Tea-Horse Road trade) but was not the growing origin of the tea itself, which comes from mountains increasingly associated with Xishuangbanna Prefecture to the south. The renaming reflects the administrative consolidation of puerh’s identity under official Yunnan Province economic development while the specialty market has simultaneously moved toward increasingly granular mountain-level provenance claims that make city-level branding somewhat beside the point.

Regional Profile

In-Depth Explanation

The Historical Pu’er: A Different City

The historical city of Pu’er — the origin point whose name attached to the tea — was a major commercial hub in Yunnan during the Tang through Qing dynasties. Tea from the Xishuangbanna mountains (Menghai, Yiwu and the Six Famous Tea Mountains of classical puerh geography) was transported north to what was then called Pu’er (present-day Ning’er County, 宁洱哈尼族彝族自治县, now technically within Pu’er Prefecture) for sorting, compression, and distribution. The tea took the name of the distribution hub, not the growing origin — the same reason Champagne is named for a region rather than a vineyard, or why Darjeeling names the district rather than specific garden elevations.

The 2007 renaming absorbed Simao’s administrative area to match this historical trading name, but the geographical center of the historical “Pu’er” city is technically the area around present-day Ning’er rather than the new Pu’er City’s administrative center.

Simao: The Trading Hub Rebranded

Historical significance of Simao:

Before the renaming, Simao was well-established as a commercial and administrative center in the puerh trade route. The old Tea-Horse Road routes connecting the Xishuangbanna mountain production areas to Yunnan’s northern cities and ultimately to Lhasa, Chengdu, and beyond passed through the Simao area. Simao functioned as:

• A sorting and distribution point for compressed puerh cakes before caravan transport
• An administrative inspection point under Qing dynasty tea regulation
• A commercial settlement where Han merchants, Dai peoples, and other trading communities intersected

The 2007 renaming rationale:

Yunnan Province submitted and approved the renaming of Simao Prefecture to Pu’er Prefecture (and Simao City to Pu’er City) in 2007, at the peak of the puerh investment boom. The rationale given by Yunnan provincial authorities was:

1. To protect and promote the geographical association of “Pu’er” with Yunnan’s tea production (against what they characterized as misuse of the puerh name by producers in other Chinese provinces)
2. To leverage the rapidly growing international recognition of puerh as a luxury product into regional economic development
3. To consolidate the tea-origin brand under a single administrative entity

Critics at the time noted that the mountain areas actually associated with premium puerh production — Yiwu, Bulang, Nannuo, Bingdao — were in neighboring Xishuangbanna Prefecture, not in Simao/Pu’er Prefecture, making the renaming somewhat misdirected as a production-origin claim.

The Six Famous Tea Mountains and Their Relationship to Pu’er City

The classical “Six Famous Tea Mountains” (六大茶山, liù dà cháshān) of puerh geography — Yiwu (倚邦), Mangzhi (莽枝), Gedeng (革登), Mansa (蛮砖), Youle (攸乐), and Yibang (易武) — are all located in what is now Xishuangbanna Prefecture, NOT in Pu’er Prefecture. Similarly, the contemporary premium production mountains — Bingdao (冰岛), occupying Lincang; Yiwu, the most famous Xishuangbanna mountain; Bulang, Nannuo — are not administratively within Pu’er City.

What IS within Pu’er Prefecture:

Jingmai Mountain (景迈山) is the most prominent premium puerh production area administratively within Pu’er Prefecture proper. Jingmai gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2023 as a “Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests” — this represents a significant development for Pu’er City’s claim to premium puerh production origin.

Jingmai Mountain

Within Pu’er City’s administrative boundary, Jingmai Mountain stands apart:

• Elevation: 1,400–1,600m
• Old growth villages: Mangjing (芒景), Manmai (芒迈), Naodui (翁基), and others; ethnic Bulang and Dai peoples maintaining multi-century agricultural tea practices
• UNESCO World Heritage designation (2023): Inscribed as “Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er” — the first tea cultural landscape to receive UNESCO WH status globally; recognized for the living tradition of forest-integrated (agroforestry) tea cultivation under the shade of existing forest trees
• Distinctive character: Jingmai puerh is often noted for honey/orchid aroma characteristics distinct from the more mineral/bitter profile of some Xishuangbanna mountains

The Post-Renaming Tea Economy

The 2007 renaming coincided with the peak of speculative investment in puerh — prices for high-quality fresh puerh cakes reached extraordinary levels before the 2007 market correction. In the aftermath:

• The Pu’er City government invested heavily in tourism infrastructure around the tea trade
• Annual tea festivals and buyer events have been organized to promote direct sourcing
• Jingmai’s UNESCO designation in 2023 has reinvigorated cultural tourism interest
• The specialty market has largely moved past city-level branding to mountain-level (Jingmai, Yiwu, Bulang) and village-level (Bingdao village, Lao Banzhang village) provenance claims — making the renaming of less commercial significance in the premium segment than originally anticipated

Common Misconceptions

“Pu’er City is where puerh tea grows.” Pu’er City’s Jingmai Mountain is a significant puerh production area, but many of the most famous premium puerh mountains (Yiwu, Bulang, Nannuo, Bingdao) are in Xishuangbanna Prefecture or Lincang Prefecture — not in Pu’er City’s administrative territory. The historical trading hub-origin name was attached to a broad geography, not a specific production zone.

“The renaming reflects ancient geography.” The 2007 renaming was a contemporary administrative decision driven by economic development strategy, not a recovery of ancient nomenclature. The ancient trading city called “Pu’er” is now the area of Ning’er County, which is within the new Pu’er Prefecture but is a specific different location from the main Pu’er City administrative center.

Related Terms

• Sheng Puerh
• Shou Puerh
• Yiwu Mountain
• Yunnan
• Tea Silk Road
• Puerh Aging

See Also

• Yiwu Mountain — one of the classical Six Famous Tea Mountains, located in Xishuangbanna rather than Pu’er City; understanding Yiwu’s position (famous production mountain outside Pu’er City boundaries) is key to understanding why the renaming is somewhat paradoxical from a production-geography standpoint
• Sheng Puerh — the tea category from which Pu’er City takes its name and on which its economic development strategy is built; the complete processing and character profile of sheng puerh provides context for why mountain-level provenance — rather than city-level branding — is what drives the premium market

Research

• Yunnan Provincial Government. (2007). Administrative Notice on the Renaming of Simao Prefecture and Simao City. Official provincial administrative record of the 2007 renaming decision, including stated rationale for geographical indication protection and economic development objectives; the primary source document for the renaming decision’s official justification; cited in multiple analyses of geographical indication politics in Chinese tea production, including regional development studies examining the intersection of administrative boundary decisions and commodity branding.
• UNESCO World Heritage Committee. (2023). Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er — Inscription Decision and Outstanding Universal Value Statement. WHC Document WHC/23/45.COM; the committee’s determination of Outstanding Universal Value for the Jingmai Mountain landscape includes analysis of the agroforestry integration of tea plants within existing forest structure as the primary universal value criterion; the documentation of the Bulang and Dai communities’ living cultural practices and their multi-century continuity constitutes the ethnobotanical and cultural basis for inscription; directly relevant to Pu’er City’s claim to significant puerh production heritage within its administrative borders.