Tianmen
Tianmen, the old Jingling county of the Qin era and hometown of the tea sage Lu Yu, took its present name under the Qing to avoid an imperial taboo.
A place shaped through time
Tianmen stands on the Jianghan Plain in central Hubei, between Jingzhou to the west and Wuhan to the east, near the waterway of the Han River. In the Warring States period it was the Chu town of Jingling, and from the Qin dynasty a county of that name, meaning the place where the hills end, lasted more than two thousand years. The Tang tea sage Lu Yu was born here, and his Classic of Tea carried the name Jingling into the history of tea. In 1726 the county was renamed Tianmen to avoid the name of the Kangxi emperor's tomb, Jingling. Lakes and fields still surround the old town, which is remembered as one of the cradles of tea culture.