Longjing Tea and the Hangzhou Tea Fields: A Visitor's Guide For Foreigners

For Longjing tea (龙井茶) in Hangzhou (杭州), visit Meijiawu (梅家坞) or Longjing Village (龙井村), free tea villages 30 to 45 minutes by bus from West Lake (西湖), during the late March to mid-April picking. Meijiawu has farmhouse tea houses along one road, while Longjing Village suits walkers, with the China National Tea Museum (中国茶叶博物馆) and the old spring nearby.

Prices are in US dollars at US$1 = CNY 6.67, with yuan in brackets.

Which village?

Go to Meijiawu for one long lane of tea houses with the fields right behind them, or Longjing Village for walking in the hills.

Both sit inside the first-grade protection zone, which locals sum up in five characters: 狮龙云虎梅 (Shifeng, Longjing, Yunqi, Hupao and Meijiawu). So no single village is the "real" source.

Short on time? A tea-village day tour handles the buses, from about US$60 (CNY 398) for a half-day Meijiawu tour to US$135 (CNY 900) for a full day.

The West Lake, Meijiawu and Qinghefang English tour runs about six hours, and the private Hangzhou day tour with the Longjing tea fields offers hotel pick-up. Most can be booked on Trip.com until the day before.

Worried about finding your way between villages? The Meijiawu half-day runs in English with free cancellation until 18:00 the day before, 4.8/5 from 5 reviews.

Before you go: four quick answers

Meijiawu vs Longjing Village vs Wengjiashan vs Waitongwu

• The walled Old Longjing (老龙井) garden in Longjing Village holds the Eighteen Imperial Tea Trees (十八棵御茶), the bushes the Qianlong Emperor is said to have picked from.
• Shifeng, above Longjing Village, is the best-known name. To pick genuine Shifeng tea, check the origin label and the price per 500 g.
• At Waitongwu's CNY 10 tea house, a nearby restaurant cooks lunch and carries it to your bamboo table, Hangzhou Net reported in its Waitongwu story.

My route: start in Meijiawu and walk the field paths to Longjing Village. It's a pleasant walk along the ridge between the two.

When is the harvest?

Picking starts in March, and most of the prized tea is done by late April.

At the Hangzhou municipal government's 2026 West Lake Longjing press conference, the city announced:

• 19 March for the early Longjing 43 bushes
• Late March for the older local plants

My advice for 2027: watch for the same announcement from early March.

"Pre-Qingming" only tells you the leaves came off the bush before the Qingming festival. It says nothing about grade.

Ask which year and which window it came from, then look for that year on the origin label.

November visit? Expect quiet hills and last spring's tea

Spring Longjing that's been kept sealed and cold still makes a good cup in autumn, though the fresh, nutty smell gets a little weaker each month.

The two-hour Meijiawu picking, frying and tasting session costs from about US$11 (CNY 72) and is bookable on the day; a half-day tea-farmer tour runs to US$75 (CNY 498).

The Longjing Village hike with tea picking and frying runs slots from 9:00 to 15:00, from about US$70 (CNY 468).

Never fried tea in a wok? The two-hour session has English service, instant confirmation and free cancellation until 23:59 the day before, 4.8/5 from more than 140 reviews.

How do you taste and buy Longjing tea?

Ask what a cup costs before you sit down, taste before you pay, and buy a small labeled pack.

The host will usually make Longjing in a tall glass. You watch the flat leaves float, sink and slowly open as the glass is topped up.

One traveler on Trip.com paid about US$2.25 (CNY 15) for a cup with pumpkin seeds, and refills of hot water were free.

When all I want is a cup, I say so before the kettle goes on, and a polite "no thank you" is all it takes.

A courtyard tasting is the cup you pay for, charged per person, per pot or per tea, so ask which one before you sit.

To taste with a guide before you buy, the two-hour China National Tea Museum tour costs about US$36 (CNY 239), with English sessions at 9:30 or 13:00, booked by 21:30 the day before.

Don't want to haggle in Chinese? The museum tour runs in English, with two sessions a day.

US$1.50 a cup to US$900 for 500 g: the price ladder

Tea here is priced per jin, or 500 g. A quote of "1,000 a jin" therefore means about US$150 (CNY 1,000) for 500 g. Real pre-Qingming tea costs well above ordinary tea, so the price itself is a useful check.

No origin label, no West Lake Longjing

The label rules come from the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' West Lake Longjing origin-label measures (西湖龙井茶产地证明标识管理办法):

• A pack sold as 西湖龙井 (West Lake Longjing) has to be grown inside the protected 168-square-kilometer area and must carry an origin label.
• Farmers who sell their own tea get N labels, one per 250 g.
• Licensed companies get Q labels in sizes from 20 g to 250 g.
• Each label is printed with the year, size and a serial number.

Plain "Longjing" (龙井茶) from Qiantang or Yuezhou is a different, legal tea from elsewhere in Zhejiang. It's usually cheaper and fine to buy under that name.

Buy from a seller who can show the label, with the same year they quoted.

250 g is plenty: buy small, keep it sealed

Keep the pack away from heat and strong smells, then in the fridge once home.

Seven lines to show the tea-house host

QR code payment is the norm in the villages, so link your card to Alipay (支付宝) or WeChat Pay (微信支付) before the trip.

Some small sellers only have personal QR codes, which don't accept foreign cards. A little cash covers those.

The app setup is covered in the guide to traveling China without a Chinese phone number.

How do you get to the tea villages, and what is a good half-day plan?

Take a city bus, and half a day covers one village, a tea house and lunch. Add the museum and a lake walk for a full day.

• Bus 27 from Yuewang Road
• Bus 103 or 121 for Meijiawu

The China National Tea Museum is free to enter and has two sites:

• Shuangfeng, at 88 Longjing Road
• The Longjing site, at 268 Wengjiashan, with a tea garden and a hilltop terrace over the fields
• Hours in its visitor guide: 9:00 to 16:30, closed every Tuesday except public holidays

9:00 to 13:30: one morning in the tea hills

For Meijiawu, the first three rows change:

• Bus 103 or 121 to the Meijiawu stop
• A walk up the lane to the fields behind the houses
• Tea in one of the courtyards

For lunch in Meijiawu, travelers on Trip.com point to Chunjuan Teahouse for farm dishes such as tea-scented chicken. On busy weekends, book your table ahead.

In Longjing Village, one Trip.com traveler found the kitchens deeper in the village run by locals and cheaper, at about US$10.50 to US$12 (CNY 70 to 80) a head.

On a spring weekend, I book the ride back in DiDi before the last cup, since empty taxis are scarce in the hills. The DiDi guide covers the app setup.

Make the most of the tea hills

• On spring weekends, go in the morning, before traffic builds on the roads into Meijiawu and Longjing Village in the afternoon.
• Field paths are packed earth and stone steps, so wear shoes with grip, especially after rain, and bring a hat for the open rows.

Lakeside bed or tea-hill bed?

West Lake is the easier base for buses and evenings by the water, while the tea hills give you quiet mornings in the fields. Compare hotels near West Lake with hotels near Meijiawu.

Three of the hotels below are in Meijiawu village (Lionhill Green Teavilla, Yunlang Xiaoxuan and Xuanzhe Homestay), and three are by the lake (Friendship Hotel, Ashy Hotel and Mercure).

From Shanghai, the Shanghai to Hangzhou high-speed train makes it an easy two-night trip.

Want to wake up next to the tea rows? On Trip.com, Yunlang Xiaoxuan in Meijiawu rates 9.4/10 from nearly 140 reviews, and Lionhill Green Teavilla 9.0/10 from about 120.

What are the most common Longjing trip mistakes?

A great day comes down to good timing, unhurried buying and the right tour.

Two more tips

• Going on your own or with a booked guide lets you choose which courtyards and farms to visit.
• A tea-leaf reading, ceremony or photo in a courtyard can cost extra, so ask first.