Longjing road in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province.

Just as Beijing likes to boast about Peking Duck, Hangzhou is famed for its West Lake and Longjing tea (龍井茶). When a cup of Longjing tea is served, one cannot help but imagine the beautiful terraced tea fields of Hangzhou. Known locally as Longjing, the West Lake Dragon Well Tea is one of the most famous types of Chinese green tea, if not the best.

To get the premium quality, the best harvest time of Longjing tea is typically around Qingming Festival. Therefore, before the early morning mist clears up, I set out for Longjing, the home of the finest green tea. However, as a new-comer to Hangzhou, I was unexpectedly caught in heavy traffic jams, worse than those in Beijing. It took me two hours’ car ride from the city centre to Longjing, a route of only five or six miles! Sure enough, I ended up there quite late in the morning and the dream of watching the delicate manners of tea-leaf-picking girls evaporated altogether with the morning haze.

Farmers harvest West Lake Longjing tea in a tea farm in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province.

Trying to follow in the wake of tea leaf pickers, I put on a cap (the tea leaf pickers wore wide-brimmed bamboo hats) and immersed myself into the tea bushes. These experienced tea experts had a wealth of knowledge about tea: Longjing tea trees grow to be highly nutritious after absorbing adequate nourishment during fall and winter.

Besides, the Longjing Tea’s tenderness, healthiness and fragrance are all attributed to the mild and humid climate of the Yangtze river delta.

A woman picks the leaves in a tea farm in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province.

A female tea leaf picker filled me in on the skills of tea-picking: it is preferable to take a bud with a leaf at one time, and the bud is supposed to be longer than the leaf. Moreover, she was proud that Longjing tea leaves were still hand-collected, “It is said that machines are being used to collect the tea leaves in some other areas, but we have been insisting on picking by hand which not only guarantees the quality, but honors our tea’s reputation.”

The tea leaf pickers in the Longjing area are largely women. The Tishou (Lift hand) manner is the most popular way to pick tea leaves. The first step is to choose the right leaf. Then, nip it gently using your thumb and index finger with the palm facing downwards, lift your hand, and it is done. In this way, both the leaf and branch are protected.

The basket is filled with newly picked green tea leaves.

I was more trouble than help at picking tea, and was reminded by a kind female tea picker that I should not nip the leaves with my nails, as doing so would squeeze out the tea liquid and make the leaves worthless. Generally, both hands were needed to pick leaves, and the process was like a chicken pecking grains: picking leaves and putting them into baskets. Lift your hands and put them down in a rhythm. Within moments, the empty basket was filled with newly picked green leaves.

Although I didn’t contribute much to this basket of fresh leaves, I regarded it as the fruits of my labor. I will definitely be back to pick tea leaves again next year.