Meng Shan tea mountain, Mingshan County, Ya'an. Begun in the western Han Dynasty. Mengding Mountain, a hundred kilometres southwest of Sichuan’s capital, Chengdu, is revered in Chinese tea history. The highest of a cluster of five peaks, and frequently shrouded in cloud, this is where Wu Lizhen, the first known grower of tea, is recorded as having planted seven tea trees between the years 53 and 50 BC.