As an avid green tea drinker, hiking Hangzhou tea fields was utter bliss. Hangzhou tea fields are home to the renowned green tea, Longjing Tea, otherwise known as Dragon Well Tea. There’s something so magical about seeing where something comes from that you have every day. And for all of the non-tea drinkers out there, not to worry, because the tea plantations also happen to be some of the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen. Visiting Meijiawu and Longjing Tea plantations is definitely one of the best things to do in Hangzhou, China. Here is everything you need to know before you go.
CONTENTS
- Hiking Hangzhou Tea Plantation In China Video
- How To Get To The Hangzhou Tea Plantations?
- Meijiawu Tea Plantations And Village
- How To Hike Between Meijiawu Village To Longjing Village
- Longjing Tea Plantations And Village
- How Long Does It Take To Hike From Meijiawu Village To Longjing Village
- The Best Time To Visit Hangzhou Tea Plantations
Hiking Hangzhou Tea Plantations Video
How To Get To The Hangzhou Tea Plantations?
If you’re wondering how to get to the Longjing tea villages, first you need to know that there are two main villages that grow Hangzou’s most famous tea, Longjing Tea. The main tea fields in Hangzhou are located at Longjing Village and Meijiawu Village. You can reach both these villages by public buses, but it is quicker to get a taxi if you can.
We got a taxi from nearby Hangzhou train station, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Taxis were actually few and far between and most were occupied. We ended up asking a nearby hotel to help us get a taxi and they were so lovely to help us out. If you have DiDi on your phone that will probably be easier. However, during our time in China, we were unable to use DiDi without a local bank card attached to it.
Once we got our taxi, it only took about 30 minutes to reach Meijiawu Village. Before we took our taxi we agreed upon 100 RMB as a fixed price to get us to the Meijiawu Village. From what we had read this is more expensive than a metered taxi but as it was quite difficult to get a taxi we were happy to pay more.
If you want to take a bus, you can take the tourist bus Y4 to Meijiawu Village or Y3 to Longjing Village.
Meijiawu Tea Plantations And Village
We started our day at Meijiawu Village. As we were driving there in our taxi, all of a sudden fields of tea bushes started to appear. We hadn’t made to it Meijiawu Village yet and we didn’t know how far we had to go. But we asked the taxi driver to just let us out on the side of the road so we could walk the rest of the way as it was just so beautiful. At that moment time did not matter. There were tea plantations as far as the eye could see, alive with the chatter of busy tea pickers. Rarely are high expectations met, yet alone, far exceeded. This was one of those times.
So we walked alongside the most beautiful road, occasionally taking a side path to explore some of the Meijiawu Tea Plantations.
When we made it to Meijiawu Village, there were many little tea houses to sit and enjoy freshly picked Longjing Tea. We went to Li Geng Tang Tea House and tried both the freshly picked Longjing Tea and the older harvest Longjing Tea to compare. We sat upstairs with beautiful views of the tea plantations. You could really tell the difference between the freshly picked Longjing Tea and the older harvest. The freshly picked green tea had lighter flavours but those flavours were strong and vibrant. The older harvest green tea was also great but had more of singular flavour. It’s quite difficult to put into words, but definitely recommend trying both to compare when you are there. We preferred the freshly picked Longjing Tea but loved them both.
You can learn more about Longjing tea on this China Highlights article.
Li Geng Tang Tea House
Address | 203 Meiling South Road, Meijiawu
How To Hike Between Meijiawu Village And Longjing Village
We started our tea fields hike in Meijiawu Village and ended in Longjing Village. It actually wasn’t super clear how to do this hike, so we will put some of the directions and photos here so it makes it a little clearer.
This photo below is the area you walk through to start your hike through the tea plantations.
You continue to follow the stairs up through the tea fields. When you reach the first fork, we went right as you can see in the photo below.
At the next junction, you go left, as per the photo below.
This will bring you around to the other side of the mountain and you will see Longjing Village below. This part of the walk was absolutely stunning, with mountain views and tea fields everywhere.
There were actually quite a few ways to get down to Longjing Village, and this is the part where I think you could probably go a more direct way than us. But we just started making our way downhill and eventually, we ended up in Longjing Village.
Longjing Tea Plantations And Village
We ended our hike walking down through the Longjing Tea Plantations to Longjing Village. This area was also beautiful, but the village definitely felt a little more touristy than Meijiawu Village. This is probably because Longjing Village is closer to Hangzhou and is also the most obvious to go to as the tea and village share the same name. It also may have been because we arrived at Longjing Village later in the day.
You could choose to just visit Longjing Village as it is closer to Hangzhou, but out of the two villages, Meijiawu Village was definitely our favourite. You could also just visit Meijiawu Village if you don’t have time for the hike, as you can still walk through the tea plantations there. But if you have the time the hike through the two fields from Meijiawu Village to Longjing Village was an unforgettable experience.
How Long Does It Take To Hike From Meijiawu Village to Longjing Village?
We did the actual hike in about 2 to 2.5 hours. We didn’t rush, so I’m sure it could be done a little quicker too.
Even though this is how long the hike took us, we did actually spend about 4.5 hours in total at the tea fields. This includes exploring the Meijiawu tea plantations, stopping for Longjing tea in Meijiawu Village and the hike from Meijiawu Village to Longjing Village. This took us all morning but it was something I will remember forever.
Best Time To Visit Hangzhou Tea Plantations
We visited the Hangzhou tea fields on the first days of the harvest that year, the 25th of March. This was such a magical time as the tea pickers were out, we could see the process of tea being picked, the tea fields were peacefully alive with chatter. And it means you can try the freshest tea leaves at one of the tea shops in the villages. The scenery was so spectacular, some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
So if you can, we would definitely recommend visiting during picking times. The main tea picking times in Hangzhou are in Spring, around late March and early April. But there will be beautiful scenery here all year round.
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