I Want to Go Tea Picking!

by Chang
(Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Thank you so much for your wonderful website! I really enjoy your writing.

I'm a student in The Netherlands and am going to visit my family in Beijing from February 12th until March 19th, 2010.

During these weeks, I would love to experience the harvesting season by doing a week of tea picking myself.

Do you have any suggestions/contacts to help me accomplish this? It doesn't matter where and I'm willing to travel to Shanghai and of course I don't expect to get a pay check ;)

Hope you don't think this is a weird question, it has been a dream of mine that I hope to fulfill this year.

Thank you,
Chang

Answer:

That is a very wonderful idea and of course I don't think it is weird.

There is no tea fields around Beijing, so the obvious suggestion I would make is find yourself a holiday home around the tea gardens in Hangzhou's West Lake.

I have heard of places where tourists could rent - possibly in the Meijiawu villages as they do cater for tourists.

As for the tea season, the timing varies, and it is unlikely for the first day of harvesting to start before 15 March. Basically the colder the weather, the less likely is for the tea buds to sprout - the micro-climate varies from year to year!

I hope this helps. Hopefully your further research will bear fruits!

Julian