Tea in Hangzhou

Three hours southwest of Shanghai, Hangzhou is one of principal cultural city of 2,000 years of history. Although China's political upheaval in the last century destroyed much of its historic architecture, it has retained some of its most significant landmarks, such as Lingyin Temple, once home to 3,000 Buddhist monks in its heyday. The central attraction of the city is its mist-laden West Lake, around which a handful of ancient romance and legend were developed. Away from the largely Westernized metropolises, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou is relatively quiet, leisure place. “If there is a heaven on earth, Suzhou and Hangzhou must be it,” as a Chinese proverb praises.



Tea is popular everywhere in China, but few places enjoy Hangzhou's reputation for tea - an undefined element that seems to encompass all things related to tea. On the first day of Chinese lunar new year a cup of spring tea is offered to the Goddess of Mercy in wish of yearlong well-being. To confirm marital relations tea is the last betrothal gift to the parents of the would-be bride. As to popular tea culture, nothing is more representative than the teahouses that line West Lake and huddle in the valleys of surrounding hills. Brews of tea are not cheap, but the price of a pot buys hours of lazing around, a favorite activity of locals and visitors as well.

West Lake Dragon Well tea, grown on the hills surrounding the city, is Hangzhou's specialty. From growing it to writing poetry about it, the green tea is consumed in almost everywhere within it. High-grade Dragon Well is expensive - often displayed in luxury shops like jewelry. Yet many of the poorest local people consider it a necessity. Its leaves, brilliant emerald green spears about three quarter inch long, are renowned throughout China for their beauty.

“Hangzhou's Tianzhu Temple and Lingyin Temple produce teas,” recorded Tea Classic, 760 AD. Tea flourished in Hangzhou when the city was the capital of Southern Song Dynasty, 1127 - 1279. “Teahouses are decorated with fresh flowers and virtuoso paintings for appearances. Besides rare varieties of teas, plum wine is served in the winter and heatstroke preventive is on the summer menu,” described Life in Hangzhou, a documentary from that period. To the fourteenth century Dragon Well, the city's legendary curative, began to make its mark. In Macropaedia, 1591, it was ranked 21st in 97 selected teas nationwide. What raised Dragon Well to be the best of Chinese teas was the esteem of an eighteenth century emperor who visited its producing location many times and appointed a small patch of 18 tea trees to be his garden.

Dragon Well, a stone-fenced karst spring on Bamboo Ridge southeast of West Lake, gave its name to the tea. Believing its perennial running water opens to the ocean where sea-dragon lives, the locals used to come to pray for rain in dry years. Today the spring pit is part of Dragon Well Cultural Village, a tourist resort featuring places of historic interest and scenery.