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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Now is the perfect season for tea up in the hills

By Wu Huixin | 00:01 UTC+8 April 12, 2017 | Print Edition

IT is the prime season for fresh tea! The recent moist air, abundant rainfall and rising temperatures mean the leaves are at their tenderest.

In Hangzhou’s Longjing, Meijiawu and Waitongwu villages, farmers are busy picking the leaves, and visitors from far and wide flock here for the most aromatic Longjing tea.

In addition to Longjing tea, Zhejiang Province boasts many other varieties featuring refreshing tastes and mellow fragrances.

It’s at this time of year, too, that the tea gardens are their most picturesque and idyllic as the terraced shrubs thrive.

Shanghai Daily takes a look at the popular tea types and picks a couple of production places, where visitors could have a self-driving trip at weekends, sipping a cup of freshly brewed tea at local teahouses.

Songyang County

The county’s biggest attraction is the vast area of tea trees. Due to its undulating mountains and high altitude, it is shrouded in mist for almost four months of the year.

The county’s long tradition of growing tea trees could date to the Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280).

Locals believe that a Taoist named Ye Fashan brewed tea picked from the Mao Mountain for 49 days and helped cure a plague. The folk story helped spread the fame of tea across the country and convinced people of its herbal value.

Today, Silver Monkey tea is considered the flagship of Songyang. It features curled, tender leaves with heady fragrance.

The county boasts more than 1,150 hectares of tea.

The core area has been developed into the Damu Mountain Tea Tree Garden, where there is a 8-kilometer bike path flanked by varied tea trees with viewing platforms, porches and tourist service centers.

Visitors can ride through plantations. If they tire, they can stop at teahouses along the road.

Visitors can pick leaves that can later be prepared into a fresh cup of tea while they look out over the pastoral scenery. Those wanting to immerse themselves in lush tea trees, they can drive to an remote, ancient hamlet named Yangjiatang.

It is largely cut off from the outside world, but the idyllic lifestyle still draws visitors.

The lush vegetation and yellow earth houses attract shutterbugs and painters every day. But tourism hasn’t changed the locals’ tranquil life. On the contrary, they still retain their simple and plain lifestyle, living off tea.

 

How to get there: Hangzhou-Xin’anjiang-Jingdezhen Expressway — Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou Expressway — Songyang Exit

Xinchang County

The most popular local specialty is Dafo tea, which is considered equal to Longjing tea. Connoisseurs consider that the former smells more aromatic while the latter tastes sweeter and smoother.

Xinchang locals have planted tea for more than 1,500 years. A folk story said that in ancient times a woman who lived near Dafo Temple dreamt that Buddha picked leaves from a tree and then made a cup of water filled with aroma.

She quickly found the trees after waking up. Natives named it after the temple and began to cultivate these shrubs, which turned out popular.

Xinchang is mantled with mist in hills and terraced fields, giving the appearance of a mysterious wonderland. The misty ambience lures shutterbugs all year-round.

The county is a great place for hiking because of its lush mountains and unspoiled creeks.

Tea gardens spread over the county, and bamboo-walled teahouses often nestle there. Visitors can sip a cup of mellow tea while enjoying the picturesque. If they want to learn more about Dafo tea, they should not miss Tianmu Mountain.

The mountain is noted for its tea culture and Buddhist grottos. Hikers can choose the safe stone-step path or pick their own way through the forest, exploring the area’s trails, streams, waterfalls and tea-related heritage.

 

How to get there: Hangzhou Bay Expressway — Changzhou-Taizhou Expressway — Xinchang Exit

Yuhang District

Longjing tea might steal the thunder from Jingshan tea, another local variety in Hangzhou. Jingshan is in northern Yuhang District and is noted for the origin of the tea ceremony.

Early in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), local farmers were already producing tea. Lu Yu, respected as the “Sage of Tea,” lived there in seclusion.

He grew, cultivated and made tea, and then wrote his monumental book “The Classic of Tea,” which was the first definitive work on tea.

At the time, Jingshan was famous for authentic tea ceremony rituals. These include a series of performances, procedures and particular rules for using tea leaves and vessels.

As a ritual performed during important occasions, it had a deep influence on the Chinese tea-drinking tradition.

Many Japanese monks came to Jingshan and then brought the country’s tea ceremony and seed back to their homeland. Later, they developed it into an indispensable part of their own culture.

 

How to get there: Take bus No. 153, get off at Huanbeixincun, and walk to the Wulinmenbei Station. Then take bus No. 506, get off at Yuhang and transfer to bus No. 553. Get off at Tongqiao Station.

Or you can drive along the Hangzhou-Changxing Expressway and get off at Jingshan Exit.

Hangzhou


 

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