The six famous tea mountains are a group of mountains in Xishuangbanna that are renowned for their climates and environments, which not only provide excellent growing conditions for pu-erh, but also produce unique taste profiles (akin to terroir in wine) in the produced pu-erh tea. Over the course of history, the designated mountains for the tea mountains have either been changed or listed differently.

In the Qing dynasty government records for pu-erh, the oldest historically designated mountains were said to be named after six commemorative items that were left in the mountains by Zhuge Liang and using the Chinese characters of the native language of the region.[15] These mountains are all located northeast of the Lancang River (Mekong) in relatively close proximity to one another. The mountains' names, in the Standard Mandarin character pronunciation are:

Gedeng Mountain: The term for "leather stirrup"
Mansa Mountain: The term for "seed sowing bag"
Mangzhi Mountain: The term for "copper cauldron"
Manzhuan Mountain: The term for iron brick"
Yibang Mountain: The term for "wooden clapper"
Youle Mountain: The term meaning "copper gong"

Southwest of the river there are also six famous tea mountains that are lesser known from ancient times due to their isolation by the river.They are:

Mengsong Mountain:
Menghai Mountain:
Jingmai Mountain:
Nannou Mountain: a varietal of tea grows here called Zijuan whose buds and bud leaves have a purple hue.
Bada Mountain:
Youle Mountain:

For various reasons, by the end of the Qing dynasty or beginning of the ROC period, tea production in these mountains dropped drastically, either due to large forest fires, over-harvesting, prohibitive imperial taxes, or general neglect.To revitalize tea production in the area, the Chinese government in 1962 selected a new group of six famous tea mountains that were named based on the more important tea producing mountains at the time, including Youle mountain from the original six.

Other areas of Yunnan
Many other areas of Yunnan also produce pu-erh tea. Yunnan prefectures that are major producers of pu-erh include Lincang, Dehong, Simao, Xishuangbanna, and Wenshan. Other tea mountains famous in Yunnan include among others:

Bangwei Mountain
Banzhang Mountain: noted for producing powerful and complex teas that are bitter with a sweet aftertaste
Yiwu Mountain: perhaps the most popular tea mountain amongst collectors.
Bada Mountain:
Wuliang Mountain:
Ailuo Mountain:
Jinggu Mountain:
Baoshan Mountain:
Yushou Mountain:
Region is but one factor in assessing a pu-erh tea, and pu-erh from any region of Yunnan is as prized as any from the six famous tea mountains if it meets other criteria, such as being wild growth, hand-processed tea.