# Taiwan — research and visual inventory

Researched: 2026-10-04. Output lettering: English only.

Research inventory is broader than label budget. No claim of every Taiwanese farm being included. Tea collections prioritize 17 growing clusters plus tea-trade heritage through grouped scene architecture; mixed collections preserve landmarks and source-map storytelling.

## Source-map inventory

**file**: taiwan.png

**cities**: Keelung; Taipei; Hsinchu; Taichung; Nantou; Hualien; Chiayi; Tainan; Kaohsiung.

**explicit tea labels**: Wenshan; Lishan; Dongding; Alishan.

**geographic labels**: Danshui River; Zhuoshui River; Sun Moon Lake; Central Mountain Range; Yushan 3952 m; Taiwan Strait; Penghu Archipelago; Pacific Ocean.

**lettering excluded**: Taiwan Island footer; Chinese footer.

**visual features**: Long narrow island coast silhouette; Central serrated mountain spine; Blue branched western rivers; Eastern cliffs; Taipei 101-like tower; Wenshan tea terraces with pickers and farm roofs; Lishan tea terraces with pickers; Sun Moon Lake shore pagoda; Dongding tea garden and hut; Alishan tea garden with picker and sheds; One unidentified steep-roof timber building; One unidentified eastern temple complex; Southwestern harbor roofs; Southeastern coastal harbor roofs; Four sailing vessels/junks in surrounding waters; Small Penghu islets; Mountain trees and scattered coastal settlement details.

**limits**: This is a stylized source illustration, not surveyed cartography. Use approximate north/south and inland/coastal relations, not exact coordinates from it.; The anonymous timber building and eastern temple are visual motifs; do not attach a named monument or indigenous group without separate evidence.; Tea plantations are not to be depicted on the summit of Yushan.; Dongding is normalized to Dong Ding; the prompt uses Lugu / Dong Ding, not a second fictitious area..

## Tea territories and scene vocabulary

| Territory | Tea / role | Visual cue | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinglin / Wenshan | Baozhong | Twisted leaves in a bamboo withering tray beside low tea terraces and a narrow river. | PL, AFA |
| Muzha / Maokong | Tieguanyin | Compact roasting basket and a tea-house roof with one tiny gondola. | TY, MK |
| Sanxia | Biluochun green tea | Tender bud-and-two-leaf sprig and tight green tea curls, brick arcade fragment. | SX |
| Hsinchu / Miaoli | Oriental Beauty | Beipu/Emei and Toufen/Tongluo represented by one Hakka courtyard, a leafhopper on a tea shoot, and white-tipped leaves. | OB |
| Taoyuan / Lalashan | High-mountain oolong; Longtan Oriental Beauty | Cypress-and-cloud tea slopes; optional unlabelled warm factory roof; Longtan remains part of the broader Oriental Beauty cluster. | GI, OB |
| Yilan | Datong, Dongshan, Sanxing and Jiaoxi teas | River-valley garden with a folded Baozhong leaf and one amber cup, never an invented specific single tea for the entire county. | YL, MK |
| Lishan | High-mountain oolong | Very steep dark pine silhouettes, stacked tea terraces and rolled oolong pearls. | LH, HM, GI |
| Hehuanshan / Renai | High-mountain oolong | Faceted cool mountain summit behind a small separated tea slope. | GI, HM |
| Shanlinxi / Zhushan | High-mountain oolong | Bamboo and conifers beside curved mountain tea rows. | GI, HM |
| Lugu / Dong Ding | Roasted oolong | Bamboo charcoal-roasting basket, warm roasted leaf pellets and a small traditional farm roof. | CS, AFA |
| Yuchi / Sun Moon Lake | Ruby 18 and other black teas | Lake crescent, small recognizable pagoda and long dark leaves above ruby-red liquor. | CS, AFA |
| Mingjian / Songboling | Sijichun, Jinxuan, Cuiyu oolong | Wide low rolling tea rows; three leaf buds of different silhouettes, without medicinal symbols. | SB |
| Alishan | High-mountain oolong | Cloud-cut tea terraces, one farmer with basket, cypress trunk and optional miniature narrow-gauge locomotive. | HM, CS, GI |
| Ruisui / Wuhe | Honey-scented black tea | Open river terrace tea rows, black twisted leaves and an amber drop drawn separately; no poured honey or honey additive. | RS, SW |
| Luye / Taitung | Red Oolong | Rounded dark oolong pellets, copper-red cup and low plateau tea rows; optional distant balloon only in mixed collections. | RO |
| Liugui | Native Taiwan mountain tea and oolong | Tall tea tree beneath woodland canopy, bigger natural leaves instead of clipped plantation only. | LG |
| Gangkou / Manzhou | Coastal tea | Tea terraces bending in sea wind above two clean ocean strokes. | GK |
| Nangang / Dadaocheng | Tea history and trade; Baozhong in Nangang | Small tea chest and warehouse roof; strictly history/trade, not a plantation designation for Dadaocheng. | NG |

## Fact handling

- **verified**: Baozhong belongs to northern Wenshan/Pinglin; Muzha/Maokong is associated with Tieguanyin. Sources: PL, TY, MK.
- **verified**: Oriental Beauty has a leafhopper-linked mechanism and a northwest cluster extending through Hsinchu, Miaoli and parts of Taoyuan/New Taipei. Sources: OB.
- **verified**: Ruby 18 is strongly associated with Yuchi/Sun Moon Lake. The east coast must have Luye Red Oolong and Ruisui honey-scented black tea represented separately. Sources: CS, RO, RS, SW.
- **correction**: Do not repeat tea.travel superlative that Alishan is the highest tea terroir in the world; use high-mountain oolong without a numerical elevation claim. Sources: TT, HM.
- **folklore_not_printed**: Queen Victoria naming Oriental Beauty is presented as legend by the government tourist manual, not an established historical statement. Sources: TT, RS.
- **excluded_unverified**: Do not print impossible to counterfeit, exact 75% oxidation, or a universally fixed tea-processing percentage. Sources: TT.
- **art_direction**: Clouds are transparent cutout gaps or thin contour arcs, never a grey/blue background haze. The entire project is print art, not a ceramic mockup. Sources: original art direction.

## Current composition direction — revised pilot

Tea collections prioritize the tea territories, processing and real leaf morphology documented above. Mixed collections retain geographic and architectural storytelling alongside tea. The number of researched territories is broader than the label budget; not every fact needs a small printed caption.

The revised pilot uses one connected panorama with two or three dominant masses, varied scale, foreground/midground/distance, and natural transparent openings. Neighbouring stories may share landscape contours, branches, roofs or human action. This replaces the earlier requirement for isolated islands, uniform gutters or a fixed percentage of empty space. No opaque rectangular backing, paper field, filled island silhouette or background haze is introduced. Visible artwork lettering remains English only.

These are editorial drawings, not surveyed maps. Relative regional relationships and tea facts remain grounded in the inventory; composition is adapted to a 250 × 75 mm wrap.

## Sources

- **TT** — [tea.travel Taiwan](https://tea.travel/en/region/taiwan/). User travel editorial; route and design inspiration, not an agricultural authority.
- **AFA** — [Agriculture and Food Agency: Taiwan Tea](https://www.afa.gov.tw/eng/index.php?article_id=22922&code=list&flag=detail&ids=474). Government overview of tea categories by broad region.
- **OB** — [TBRS: Oriental Beauty](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/en/ws.php?id=4161&print=Y). Government agricultural source: leafhopper mechanism and growing areas.
- **HM** — [TBRS: High-mountain Oolong](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/en/ws.php?id=4157&print=Y). Government agricultural source: production territories and tea processing.
- **GI** — [TBRS: registered origin certification marks](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/ws.php?id=5258). Government evidence for named tea origins including Lishan, Alishan, Shanlinxi, Lalashan and Hehuanshan.
- **PL** — [Pinglin Tea Museum](https://www.tea.ntpc.gov.tw/tea_en/xmdoc/cont?xsmsid=0G274529165146157074). Municipal museum: Pinglin and Wenshan Baozhong.
- **TY** — [TBRS: Tieh-Kuan-Yin](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/en/ws.php?id=4160&print=Y). Government agricultural source: Muzha and Shimen origins.
- **RO** — [TBRS: Red Oolong](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/en/ws.php?id=4866&print=Y). Government research source: Luye association; development in 2008.
- **CS** — [TBRS: central and southern tea regions](https://www.tbrs.gov.tw/ws.php?id=4804). Government agricultural regional inventory; used selectively.
- **RS** — [Tourism Administration: Taiwan tourist manual](https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/att/files/Taiwan%20-%20The%20Heart%20of%20Asia%20%28Taiwan%20Tourist%20Manual%29.pdf). Government tourism publication: Ruisui honey black tea; Queen Victoria explicitly a legend.
- **SW** — [Tourism Administration: Ruisui itinerary](https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?jid=192&sNo=0000208). Government tourism source locating Wuhe tea gardens in Ruisui.
- **SX** — [New Taipei Tourism: Sanxia](https://newtaipei.travel/en/column/1006). Municipal tourism: Sanxia Biluochun and red-brick urban heritage.
- **SB** — [Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area: Songboling](https://www.trimt-nsa.gov.tw/en/attraction/516/). Government tourism: Mingjian/Songboling tea, Sijichun, Jinxuan, Cuiyu.
- **YL** — [AFA Eastern Branch: Yilan tea](https://erb.afa.gov.tw/index.php?article_id=17300&code=list&flag=detail&ids=454). Government agriculture: Datong, Sanxing, Jiaoxi and Dongshan tea.
- **GK** — [Dapeng Bay Scenic Area: Gangkou tea](https://www.dbnsa.gov.tw/en/attraction/AttractionPage?a=224). Government tourism: Gangkou Village, Manzhou, Pingtung; coastal terraces.
- **LG** — [Maolin Scenic Area: Liugui](https://www.maolin-nsa.gov.tw/zh-tw/district/2/). Government tourism: native Taiwan mountain tea, Jinxuan and oolong in Liugui.
- **NG** — [Taipei City Government: Nangang](https://english.gov.taipei/cp.aspx?n=AA354FEE1150E02F). Municipal history: Baozhong/Pouchong and osmanthus trade.
- **MK** — [Taiwan Agriculture Tourism: Maokong and Dongshan](https://ezgo.ardswc.gov.tw/Uploads/projects/2022agriaward/index_en.html). Government rural tourism: Maokong Tieguanyin and Dongshan tea landscape.
- **LH** — [Tri-Mountain Scenic Area: Lishan](https://www.trimt-nsa.gov.tw/en/lishan/). Government tourism: Lishan mountain setting and high-mountain tea.

- **DD** — [Taipei Tourism: Dadaocheng tea trade](https://www.travel.taipei/en/pictorial/article/11066). Municipal source confirms northern trade history.