Longjing Village Tea Market

Longjing Village Tea Market is not a single building but a cluster of farmhouse tea shops spread through Longjing Village in the hills west of West Lake in Hangzhou's Xihu District. The market specializes in one product: farm-direct West Lake Longjing green tea, sold loose by weight rather than as packaged retail goods. Quality varies significantly by farmhouse; the most reputable growers sell tea picked and roasted from their own surrounding plots, while some roadside vendors resell lower-grade tea from other regions as premium Longjing, so buyers benefit from asking to see the tea leaves and, where possible, the surrounding tea bushes before purchasing. Bargaining is common and expected, particularly for larger quantities, since prices are rarely fixed and vary with the season's harvest. Cash and mobile payment apps are both accepted by most farmhouses, though card payment is uncommon in this rural setting. The village is busiest during the spring harvest season (typically late March through April), when farmhouses extend their hours and the narrow village roads fill with visitors buying the year's first pickings; the rest of the year is markedly quieter. Several farmhouses offer simple food alongside tea sales, including tea-infused dishes and tea-egg snacks. The must-visit corners are the farmhouses closest to the terraced tea gardens on the village's upper slopes, where visitors can see the plants the tea comes from, as opposed to shops clustered near the main road that primarily resell tea from elsewhere.