Tea Villages
we will be in Suzhou March 17-21, 2013 and have been told we MUST visit a tea village. Wangshan has been suggested to us but when I checked it out on google images, it did not seem particularly picturesque or interesting. Can anyone suggest a tea village close enought to Suzhou to be visited in a day (or over night)? Thanks.1
Not sure what a "tea village" is. If you want to visit some tea plantations you probably want to do it near a place that you are visiting. Where are you visiting? When I was in Hangzhou I rented a bike and biked through the farms on the other side of the lake.4
Usually Hangzhou is the places for village visit. The popular villages are Meijia wu or Dragon Well village.5
Longjing Village, Jiuxi (Nine Creeks), the Botanical Gardens with the excellent Han Meilin Art Museum are just a few places you'll want to see while visiting Hangzhou.6
The gardens alongside Inner West Lake & Maojiabu are far nicer & less crowded than what you'll find in the main tourist areas on the north, south & eastern sides of Xihu.Be sure to visit Hangzhou English Portal before your visit since its the most comprehensive information site for anyone visiting or living here.
http://www.hicentre.cn
8
Hello, I have not heard about tea village in Suzhou. But tea is famous in Hangzhou which is 2-3 hours by train from suzhou. And if you come from Shanghai, it will take about 2 hours by train. Quite convinient.Hangzhou is famous for its Longjing Tea, Meijiawu Tea Village is well-known. Also, you can appreciated the West Lake in Hangzhou. Almost every tourist come to visit hangzhou, they will love it for it is a city of leisure with good scenery.
9
Actually Shanghai to Hangzhou is 1 hour by train, Suzhou to Hangzhou is <1.5 hours by train, Suzhou to Hangzhou is 2 hours by bus. There are "tea villages" in Hangzhou as mentioned above-- Meijiawu and Longjing. If you go to Meijiawu, try going a few hundred meters south of the white-washed tourist restaurants, and across the street from the entrance to the Yunxi Bamboo Forest is a complex with a lot of 'farmhouses' serving slightly less touristy food and tea. The better teahouses in Longjing are on the path towards 9 Creeks, as the buildings on Longjing Road have too many buses and tour groups. Daqinggu (Daqing Valley) and Longwu also have some good teahouses, in the SW part of Hangzhou.Longjing tea is full of pesticides.
