On April 4, the first day of the Qingming holidays, 26-year-old Sun Yiheng traveled from Northeast China's Jilin Province to a tea garden in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, to experience firsthand the traditional art of tea picking.
For Sun, tea has long been an essential part of daily life in China, which made her eager to understand its journey from leaf to cup. Visiting during spring, a season associated with renewal, also offered a chance to experience nature's vitality up close.
Sun is not alone. On China's lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu, posts about tea garden visits and tea culture experiences across the country are increasingly common. Many have shared photos of their trips, during which they not only picked tea leaves but also took part in activities such as tea frying.
The popularity of tea-picking experiences reflects a growing desire among young Chinese to step into tradition in a more tangible way, said Zhu Yi, an associate professor at China Agricultural University in Beijing. "Beyond the photos and videos, they are engaging with Chinese history through hands-on work."
Experiencing the craft
For Zhang Wenwei, 27, a native of Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, the Qingming holidays offered an opportunity to engage with the local specialty, Longjing tea, in a way she had never done. Spending 88 yuan, she donned traditional tea-harvesting clothing and took part in a tea making workshop.
"The environment was beautiful, and focusing on one activity brought a real sense of flow," Zhang told the Global Times. "Identifying the right buds, single leaves or two-leaf shoots, takes time and patience. It's interesting, but if you do it all day, it's exhausting."
The popularity of tea experiences has led tea businesses to innovate. Zhang Menglu, head of Pu'er Tengyi Tea Co, oversees about 240 hectares of tea gardens in Pu'er, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, including more than 30,000 tea trees that are more than 100 years old.
During peak season, her tea garden welcomes 80 to 120 participants daily. Visitors are provided with free tea tools, traditional clothing, professional guidance, rest areas, free tea tasting, and photography spots.
The staff members teach visitors to identify the right buds, pick carefully, and work through each step of processing, from picking fresh leaves, pan-frying, rolling, sun-drying, and even steaming, so that they leave with tea they have made themselves.
Experiential tea picking in these gardens typically focuses on younger plantation trees or terrace-grown tea, which are easier to manage and better suited for both educational tours and photo-oriented visits. By contrast, access to ancient tea trees is divided into designated zones to minimize human impact.
This approach allows visitors to take part in immersive experiences while also gaining an awareness of ecological protection, according to Zhang.
Springtime is ideal for green teas such as Longjing and Biluochun, which rely on tender early shoots. These spring teas are highly time-sensitive in both harvesting and processing, with the finest known as "Pre-Qingming Tea." The term refers to tea picked before Qingming - which falls in the first week of April - when leaves are at their most tender and aromatic. Widely regarded as the year's highest-quality harvest, these early spring teas are prized for their freshness and fragrance, according to Zhu.