China National Tea Museum, a must-visit place for tea lovers

Opened to public in 1991, China National Tea Museum is a national-rank museum which is all about tea, tea culture, and tea art. And it is the only museum with the tea theme in China.

Tea is deeply woven into the history and culture of China. According to legend, tea was discovered by the Chinese in 2700 BC. The beverage is considered one of the seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar. With a long history of tea processing and far-flung tea plantations, Chinese have attained rich knowledge and experience of tea collecting and processing.

China National Tea Museum is located in Longjing (Dragon Well) Village in Hangzhou, surrounded by tea plantations. Inside the museum, the flower corridors, fake hills, ponds and water-side pavilions are well integrated. So they make it a park where you can breathe the clean atmosphere and can feel the closeness to nature.

The best part of this museum is that you can see the origin, classification, tea wares, tea ceremonies and tea making through living examples. The exhibition building is divided into six halls to show the history of growing and processing of tea. They are the Hall of Tea History, the Kaleidoscope Hall, the Hall of Tea Properties, the Tea-friendship Hall, the Tea Sets Hall, and the Tea Customs Hall.

The interesting display is the samples from over two hundred years ago founded on the relic of the ship Gotheborg, where different items transported between China and also Europe over here. Actually, even before these two hundred years, there are such trades going on, which proves that tea not that something popular in China but a treasure around the world.

Opening hours:

May, 1 to Oct, 7: 9:00-17:00

Oct, 8 to Next Apr, 30: 8:30-16:30

(Close on Monday)

Admission fee:

Free

How to get there:

Take bus 27 or Y3 (Tourism Bus Line 3) and get off at Shuangfeng Station