I joined Rachael, Nicole and Jen on a trip to Hongzhou for a tea tour. The tour took the fast train to Hongzhou which I have not been on during out time in Shanghai. Jim takes the train for many of his travels in China. Rachael picked me up at 6:45am to be at the Hangqiao train station to start the fun. A quick one hour train ride to arrive in Hongzhou. We were taking the tour with Tracy Lesh, an expat that has establish a touring business. We loaded onto the bus to drive to the tea hillside village of Yangmeiling. It was a beautiful day for tea touring. It has rained the last four days so we were all pleased to see sunshine.

Nicole offered to carry the baskets for our group up the hill. She has on her sun hat and her baskets – ready to work.

It was a beautiful on the hillside with the tea brushes.

These are the real tea pickers working the fields.

Many different families own various plots of lands on this hillside. After the Culture Revolution, land was divided up by the “luck of the draw” as your family name was pulled from the bag.

The tea leave is very small. It would take a lot of picking to fill these baskets!

After finishing our walk and “tea picking”, we went back to the the village for a Chinese lunch and tea tasting. This lunch was filled with vegetables – all very good. Then, we tasted the difference in the tea based on when it was picked…the earlier in the season tea was richer tasting…and more expensive!

The tour’s next stop was the lake. Hongzhou is known for the beauty of West Lake. We did a quick walk along the Lake to see the beautiful scenery.

Our last stop was the tourist street. We first visit a museum with bronze work. The artist mixed color with bronze to create beautiful pieces.

After the museum, we did a walk of the tourist street. However, having been in China this long, there was nothing new of interest. I found this photo cute of the two kids playing with the telephones.

Back to the train station to arrive back to Shanghai at 7pm. Jim was out of town and our ayi was out sick. The girls came home on the bus to do their homework and order dinner from Sherpas. It is helpful Emersyn is old enough to be left in charge.