A valley read from the path
Walk through Longjing Village in Hangzhou, where tea rows climb the slopes and homes, lanes and small businesses occupy the valley below.
Longjing Village
Longjing Village sits among the hills southwest of West Lake, where tea gardens rise behind homes, lanes and small businesses. Longjing tea is part of the place’s identity, but the village is more than a name on a tea tin: it is a lived-in settlement within a managed tea landscape. Follow how the slopes, rows and houses fit together, then meet a local story that ties tea to an imperial visit.
A short introduction
Two stories from Longjing Village
The eighteen bushes and an emperor’s visit
Discover the Longjing story of Qianlong, a temple visit and eighteen tea bushes, a local tradition that made imperial favour part of the landscape.
Read the storyA short introduction
Follow tea beyond the village
The Landscape Inside a Tea Leaf
Around Longjing, a leaf’s familiar shape leads into a living craft and the hills that sustain it.
A Leaf with Many Lives
At China Tea Museum, the small distance between a tea garden and an exhibition opens into a much larger world of leaves, vessels and human choices.
Read the storyA short introduction
A village shaped by tea
A short introduction
A village shaped by tea
Longjing Village is part of the West Lake tea-growing landscape. Its rows of bushes, wooded ridges and homes reveal how a well-known tea belongs to a place and to the people who keep working there.
Photo credits and rights
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Tea fields and houses share a valley in Longjing Village. Photograph by Niklas Dougherty, 2017.Niklas Dougherty · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Resized; WebP conversion.
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Tea rows on a Longjing hillside, photographed in 2016.Wishva de Silva · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Resized; WebP conversion.
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A village marker connects Longjing with the local practice of asking about tea. Photograph by Windmemories, 2026.Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Resized; WebP conversion.
