by Hank Horkoff on October 10, 2011
Related tea: Anji Baicha (安吉白茶)
I have been wanting to travel to Anji ever since Anji Baicha became my tea of choice while I am at work. Anji is famous for being where ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ was filmed and is only a 3-hour drive from Shanghai.
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Anji is unfortunately a dirty, dust-covered town. As an industrial center for bamboo it appears furniture manufacturing is the major local industry. The bamboo tourist parks are located 10-15 km to the SW of the city. The Anji China Big Sea of Bamboo (安吉中国大竹海) is of great natural beauty and worth the extra drive from the city (keep driving beyond the Bamboo Expo Garden and follow the brown tourism traffic signs).
The Anji Bamboo Expo Garden (安吉竹子博览园) is closer to the city and has pandas, but can be a little disappointing if you do not like heavily-visited Chinese tourist destinations or are not a kid who likes amusement rides.
The real find for this China Tea Trail was the village of Xilongxian (西龙县) located just to the NE of Anji town proper. Xilongxian is the base for Anji White Tea (安吉白茶基地).
Within the village there is a White Tea Street (白茶街) where you can find a number of tea retailers and wholesales.
The street was pretty abandoned when we visited, but October is almost the end of green tea season. There are a number of concrete pillars with ‘tea’ carved into them in various languages.
Talking to a number of the wholesale vendors it seemed almost all of them also had a retail presence in Shanghai’s Tianshan Tea City (天山茶城) near Zhongshan Park.
Of course, we picked up some tea for gifts.
The highlight of the trip was a drive along a quiet country road just south of Xilongxian (the road south of Xilong Central School).
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Rolling hills, tea plantations and no tourists made this a relaxing and beautiful spot.
by Hank Horkoff on August 1, 2011
Related Tea: Muzha Tieguanyin (木栅铁观音)
Muzha is one of the most convenient tea tourism day trips I have come across. Located just outside of the city of Taipei, it is easily reachable by MRT, by first going to the Taipei Zoo station, then transferring to a very scenic and inexpensive 4km gondola ride to the top of the mountains at Maokong Station (猫空战). From the center of the city, the trip can be done in less than an hour.
The gondola up the mountain
A view of Taipei city from the gondola with Taipei 101 poking above the surrounding hills
Maokong Station at the top of the gondola route
A map of the walking paths near Maokong Station
The route to the left when exiting Maokong Station. The arrow to the Tea Promotion Center (茶推广中心) caught my attention.
The entrance to the Tea Promotion Center
A highlight of the trip – drinking tea and conversation with local Tea Master Chen (陈茶师)
I believe it is only a matter of time that Tea Tourism follows in the footsteps of Wine Tourism. Tea Master Chen shared with me his plans to build a small boutique hotel in the surrounding mountains where guests would be able to partake in the entire process of picking, manufacturing and then drinking tea themselves. He is thinking of charging $150 / night. The project is not yet complete, but contact him directly below to inquire about the current status of his project.
Of course, I had to purchase some of Tea Master Chen’s Spring Tieguanyin (春天铁观音). Tea with a memory/narrative also seems to taste better.
One of the many tea houses dotting the mountain trail
One of Tea Master Chen’s demonstration tea fields just up the hill from the Maokong Station.
One last view of Taipei before heading back down to the city. Supposedly, the city lights are amazing to experience at night.
