Yunnan Province of China is the world’s provenance of tea trees. It’s also the province that boasts the largest area of wild tea tree communities and ancient tea plantations with the largest amount of old tea trees and wild tea trees. The area along the Lancang River is the center of the provenance. Proposing the Pu’er Traditional Tea Agrosystem as a pilot system of GIAHS is of great significance in terms of protecting and exploiting old tea tree resources, tea plantation ecosystem and tea culture in the Lancang River Basin and in the whole nation on a larger scale. Pu’er Tea Agriculture System is centered on Pu’er tea and tea culture. The system contains a complete vertical evolution of ancient magnolias and tea trees, which proves that southwest China is the world’s provenance of tea trees. The system is composed of old wild tea tree populations, ancient transitive tea plantations, ancient cultivated tea plantations, and all sorts of tea tree populations in the ecological tea plantations that have been upgraded according to the cultivation and management mode of traditional tea plantations. Different crops are cultivated in the system, with a rich biodiversity. The system emphasizes cultural diversity remaining consistent. It relies on the traditional methods of Blang, Dai, Hani and other minorities. Located at the starting point of the Ancient Tea-Horse Route, it’s an important node in tea culture diffusion.