China - Spring 2018, Hangzhou – 4 - 龙井村 Dragon Well (Tea) Village

March 24, Saturday

gateway to Longjing Village
(sign reads backwards)  村井龙

main road through the village

     After a wild goose chase to the wrong bus stop, we got on a #27 bus to Longjing Village at a bus stop surprisingly close to our hotel. It was around 10:00 in the morning and traffic was already horrendous, it being the start of a weekend when the tourists come out in hordes. It almost seemed like all of China's 1.3 billion people came to Hangzhou for the weekend. We had to stand on the overcrowded bus as it jerked along in the bumper to bumper traffic practically all the way to our destination, Longjing Village, a town famous for its tea. Longjing means Dragon Well in Chinese. At length we finally arrived at Longjing Village and explored around the area on foot.

 terraced tea bushes

fruit vendor

temple garden 

spring water well where the village gets its name

latticed window and very large teapot

Longjing Village (Chinese character for tea on the red lanterns)

       March is the best time, according to the travel brochure, to visit [龙井村] Longjing Village. Farmers are busy picking the tender new leaves. The tea is the finest at this time because few bugs are out to eat the new tea leaves and the nutrients in the soil are at their most potent. The tea from leaves collected at this time are the most prized crop of the entire year.

tea pickers returning from the plantation

pit stop for tea . . . 

. . . and nuts and sunflower seeds 

       It is a lovely rural village in the mountains to the west of Hangzhou. The area is famous in China for its tea. It is a very rough cut green tea. The freshly cut tea leaves are put loosely into a glass and hot water is pored over it. The loose tea floats at first and slowly sinks to the bottom of the glass. Nevertheless, you have to filter the leaves through your teeth. Either that or eat some of the leaves, which aren't bad, not bitter at all since only fresh young tea leaves are chosen. We stopped at a tea house to rest and refresh before heading back, by the #27 bus again, to Hangzhou.

rough cut loose tea leaves right in the glass

traffic congested main road
through Longjing Village

on the #27 bus to Hangzhou

        By the time we were ready to leave the traffic in the little town had become bumper to bumper, making a mockery of the idea of a peaceful country retreat from the busy urban scene. It wasn't much different really. We walked to the bus stop which was already crowded with waiting passengers. When the bus arrived it was a rush, pushing and shoving, to get through the door and onto the bus. You have to wait for the next bus if it fills up before you get on—so all the pushing and shoving. You can't afford to be polite, you have to push and shove and elbow your way onto the bus with the best (or worst) of them, or else. It was standing room only all the way into Hangzhou, so we decided to get off the bus at the Broken Bridge stop and walk the rest of the way. The foot traffic on Broken Bridge was completely congested. Unbelievable!

Lingering Crowds on the Broken Bridge

the Little Emperor

"I dreamed I was the Empress of China"

       We decided to go out for a little fresh air and walking exercise and look for a noodle shop on Longyou Road, not too far from the hotel. We walked along the east shore of West Lake which was very crowded with Sunday holiday makers--a good-natured happy crowd. Some ladies (and men, too) were into dressing up in traditional clothes for photo ops as we had seen in other areas of China—a very popular activity for Chinese tourists in their own country. We soon found a little noodle shop that we had heard good things about. It turned out to be practically around the corner from our hotel. The beef and shrimp noodle dishes we ordered were excellent. As so often happens, we found the best restaurant at the very end of our stay in Hangzhou. We returned to the hotel to prepare and pack for our departure to Zhoujiajiao, an old river town not far from Shanghai.

shrimp noodles

beef noodles

exquisitely executed Chinese characters in water