Jinjishan Summer 2026 

Application:

Please email us at "admin@onerivertea.com" with your name, desired date of visitation, and a simple CV introducing your past experience. We are especially looking for those passionate about tea and/or rural development projects. After we receive your information, we will arrange a video interview in English to discuss the site and what you could do to help during your visit.

Site Introduction

Jinjishan Village is our third destination to host volunteers. Like Maiyingtai site co-operated with the Loushuiyuan Co-operative (2021-2025), and Wildbrooke with Flowinverse Tea(2025-2026) before, this will be the site where we share profits with the community. Again, volunteers have a chance to help with this initiative, namely in the village's effort to promote yellow tea and organic production. Specifically, we will work with the Chen Family and the Village Committee to help make tea production more sustainable for the 10+ families in Jinjishan Village's Zhipeng community.  Together, our volunteers and ORT member-owners will work on promoting and improving handmade yellow tea production, sustainable utilization of Summer and Autumn tea materials, test organic fertilization formulas, propagate a new heirloom-derived cultivar, and prepare materials for the international promotion of the village and their tea.

(Volunteer Homestay Under Construction, June 2026)

Jinjishan (Lit: "Golden Chicken Mountain") is the most core section of Anhui's yellow tea growing area. Zhipeng refers to the sub-village level team of households that occupy one of the higher sections of the mountain. It was on this mountain that efforts began in the 1980's to revive the yellow tea industy, and it is here today that Huoshan County pours in significant money to build up tourism and cultivate the yellow tea market. Yellow Tea, however, remains an obscure work-in-progress.

Getting To China

If you are living abroad, a travel visa is essential when coming to China. The process is fast, and the duration of stay that the travel (L-Type) visa grants is usually no less than 90 days. For residents of most countries, you will need an invitation letter, travel itinerary, passport-sized photos, and of course, a valid passport to apply for this travel visa. The application process can be as long as two weeks or as fast as two days, depending on the consulate in your area. We will work with each incoming volunteer ahead of time to direct them to the correct consulate and prepare all of their materials such that there is no chance of application rejection. Covid-19 vaccine proof should now be unnecessary for all visa applicants, but we encourage volunteers to consider tropical disease vaccination and traveler's insurance when coming.

When flying into China, be aware of the following points. Customs will have you fill out a form before stamping your passport and may ask you some questions about your stay, some questions may be political in nature in e if you are coming from certain countries. Answer honestly and calmly. You should have nothing to worry about. Be careful not to accidentally have any trace amounts of illegal substances on you or your luggage. Avoid also bringing religious literature or any printed works critical of the Chinese government. When you arrive at your destination airport, you may be unable to connect to public wifi or use roaming data. In the event you cannot find us upon getting out of customs, please go to the information desk and contact us with a public or staff phone.

Getting To Jinjishan

How you get to Jinjishan largely depends on whether or not you currently live in China. If you are coming from abroad, check to see which flights offer you the best value. Jinjishan is reasonably close to a number of local airports. Arrivals at Hefei's Xinqiao Airport or Wuhan’s Tianhe Airport are less than one day’s journey away from Jinjishan, as can be arrivals in Shanghai if they arrive in the early morning. Typically, direct international flights are only available to Wuhan or Shanghai. All of these airports are however far enough away that travelers will need to additionally take a train to Lu'an. From Lu'an, a ride in a private van can usually be booked directly to the village. Alternatively, public transit can further take one fom Lu'an to Huoshan County, and finally Dahuaping Township, just down the road from the village.  We will personally go meet travellers coming from abroad in Lu'an and accompany them back to the village. Those living in China should get themselves to Dahuaping Township, from where we can pick up easily.

Ideally, we would like also to assist travelers in getting a SIM card and temporary phone plan while they stay here. This might be unnecessary for those staying less than two weeks as a roaming plan from your international provider might be a better deal. Volunteers should try to decide as soon as possible which airport they are flying into so we can prepare with drivers and the local China Mobile office in advance.

 

Pack List

• Hot Weather Clothing (t-shirts, rash guards, shorts, swim trunks, sandals)
• Rainwear (water proof shoes / boots, thin water-proof jacket)
• Personal Technology (besides the obvious, consider a portable hard drive or flash drive of media you might watch)
• Books
• Deodorant & Floss (surprisingly hard to find over here)
• Chinese Currency (exchanging at the airport can be a bit of a rip off)
• Additional Identification (in case you lose your passport)
• Prescription Medication (psychiatric medicine can be hard to acquire in China)

The lighter you pack, the more comfortable your trip will be. Typically, you can get one free checked suitcase on international flights coming into China, but that is no longer guaranteed in the current travel market. Almost anything you might need can be purchased online in China and delivered to the village within a week, if not just a few days. Well-fitting clothes, certain toiletries, personal gadgets, and western series / movies are perhaps the only things you will need to bring over.

Accommodations

Accommodations will largely be the same for all participants. There will be three beds and one hammock available in the main adobe house, all of which are located in separate rooms. We advise against camping due to the potential hazard of poisonous centipedes and snakes, but two tents are also available. The cabin has one bathroom for our common use, wherein toiletries including a personal towel will be provided for all guests. Clothes can be washed by hand at the cabin when needed, but we advise against it.

Once a week we will go down the mountain to machine-wash our clothes, as needed. We will have equipment to hand wash on site. This weekly laundry run will also be when we pick up any and all groceries we need for the next week. Food can be ordered online and delivered to the base of the mountain in Dahuaping Township. Within reason, whatever ingredients and snacks the Woofers’ want will be purchased and delivered the day after ordering. More niche items or non-Chinese food may need to be purchased a week in advance.

Electricity, food, water, clean bedding, a personal towel, and internet access are the basic comforts we promise to any and all guests. This is a hard, semi-frontier environment, but we still want everyone to be able to end their days clean and comfortable.     

Staying Safe

Staying safe here is mostly common sense. Off trail bushwhacking, free climbing, and swimming after heavy rains are all activities that should be avoided. Crime is virtually non-existent, making the village and nearby county seat safe to visit day or night. That being said, one should still be weary of scams. Do not let anyone use your phone to send SMS messages, register an account for an online service, or download apps onto your phone. Feel free to speak to anyone you want online or offline, but do be careful about making critical comments of the Chinese government on WeChat.

Wild animals are the single biggest danger in the village. It must be said upfront that no villager or past visitor has recently suffered any serious harm. However, there are still a few certain animals that must be avoided. Snakes, centipedes, wild boars, and leaches are the three creatures that are most dangerous. To avoid startling a snake, always avoid running, stay out of tall grass, and be very vigilant about sunbathing snakes on concrete surfaces and river stones. To prevent centipede bites, avoid sleeping outside, walking barefoot, or weeding without gloves. You almost certainly won’t encounter a boor, but if you do, your first instinct should be to seek higher ground like a tree or boulder. If you’re charged on a narrow trail, stay on your feet, be loud, and try to hit the attacking boor with whatever is in arm’s reach. To avoid such a potentially fatal encounter, do not travel alone, always walk at night with a light, and stay off forest trails when dark. When outside for a long period, check yourself for ticks or parasitic fly bites, both of which are not dangerous if quickly addressed. You may well encounter a leach, so please always wear closed-toe shoes and long pants when down in the damper sections of the tea fields.

Other animals are more of a nuisance than a potential danger. Carpenter bees, red wasps, fruit bats, field mice, and the ever unsettling Giant Chinese Crab Spider are unwanted but harmless house guests. None of these potentially frightful cohabitants are poisonous or aggressive. Closing your room’s doors at night can keep out mice and bats; wasp nests can be sprayed as needed. There is however little you can do to keep out eight-legged critters. Volunteers with particular phobias should consider sleeping in the insect proof hammock. Mosquitoes are most effectively mitigated with mosquito coils, but aroma-sensitive volunteers can alternatively use mosquito nets. Volunteers with beeivenom allergies should carry epipens, as ground wasp nests (appropriately called “dog shit bees” in the local dialect) are something that past volunteers and villagers alike step on all too often. They are not particularly venomous, but you should get as much shoe leather as possible between yourself and an agitated nest. Their bite sure does hurt.

In the unlikely event you find yourself injured, contact an English-speaking host first, and we will call the hospital and local village branch in turn. The volunteer site is about 20 minutes away from the Township clinic, but more than an hour from the County Hospital. Unfortunately, neither the hospital nor the local township clinic is equipped with English-speaking medical staff. We will accompany you on any hospital visits and help you communicate with doctors in the unlikely event you need to do so.

Things To See

We do not expect volunteers to work more than 20 hours a week. Indeed, we hope you will take advantage of your free lodging here as a base camp for exploration of nearby tourist destinations. Hiking and water activities can be enjoyed at the nearby Foziling Reservoir, and the urban centers of Huoshan or Lu'an can be reached by bus or private van from Dahuaping township. Further afield in Jinzhai County, one can visit also Bat Cave associated with Lu'an Guapian. For this or more distant locations, you will likely have to find over-night lodging at your destination.   You will lso no doubt have some of your most memorable experiences just hanging out in the village with locals and other volunteers.