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Meijiawu Tea Plantation, Longjing Tea Village

Written by Ruru Zhou Updated Aug. 31, 2021

Meijiawu Tea Village is a famous production base of Longjing Tea in Hangzhou City. It used to receive many world-renowned celebrities from around the world and a number of state leaders from many other countries and regions such as the former Soviet Union, the United States, Vietnam, Romania, and Cambodia.

History of Meijiawu Tea Village

Meijiawu is an ancient village with a history of more than 600 years. As an important and the largest production base of Longjing Tea in Hangzhou, there are 500 households living in the village. The tea plantation covers an area of more than 800,000 square meters. Meijiawu Tea Village is the tourist area for sightseeing, combining farmhouses and tea culture. Every year, millions of tourists from home and abroad come to visit. The whole village is surrounded by green mountains with picturesque scenery.

Tea From Meijiawu

There are about 160 tea houses in the village. When there are visitors, they will introduce to them the history of tea, the process of making tea, and the functions of tea. In addition, there are also tea ceremonies. Every spring, visitors can pick tea leaves by themselves, learn tea culture and experience the rural life of tea farmers.

Tea produced at Meijiawu is of top quality of all the West Lake Longjing Tea. Every year there are four tea-leaves picking periods, based on the solar terms. The first period is right before Qingming (Pure Brightness, April 4 or 5), the second period is before Guyu (Grain Rain, April 19-21), the third period is during Lixia (Beginning of Summer, May 5 or 6), and the last period is one month after Lixia.

The tea dishes prepared at Meijiawu Tea Village feature light, fresh, smooth, and slightly salty flavors. The tea dishes like Longjing Tea with shrimp, Biluo Tea with shrimp, Longjing fish slices, and other dishes are the specialties. Recently there are some new dishes launched to meet the different tastes of visitors, such as carp soup with fresh tea water, tea water with crisp shell chicken, and tea water with duck stew.