Experience the joy of tea-picking in tea gardens, immerse yourself in the profound richness of tea culture at the Tea Museum, and savor the lingering aroma of tea in tea-themed guesthouses... This spring, as “Come to Huizhou, Ascend Spring Mountain” coincides with Huangshan’s most beautiful tea season, drinking spring tea, hiking tea mountains, and staying in tea-themed accommodations have become new hotspots for tourists. Tea-culture experience tours—offering opportunities to listen, admire, and savor—along with tea-themed parks, tea-museum exhibits, tea-themed guesthouses, and hands-on workshops are flourishing across various regions of Huangshan.
　　As the cherry blossoms, radiant as mist and clouds, and the terraced tea gardens compete to burst forth with the vitality of spring, it’s precisely the perfect time to savor the aroma of tea and admire the beautiful spring scenery.
　　At the Xie Yuda Tea Museum Research and Study Base in Huizhou District, batch after batch of teachers and students come here to engage in tea-picking and tea-making study tours. Amidst the lush green tea gardens, youthful figures carefully pick tender, vibrant leaves. Under the guidance of experienced tea masters, they try their hand at crafting Huangshan Mao Feng tea by hand, fully experiencing the entire process—from tender leaves transforming into fragrant tea.
　　Xie Yuda Tea Expo Garden integrates tea tasting, tea appreciation, tea research, tea production, and tea-based health practices. It has designed a variety of tea-themed tourism activities tailored to different visitor groups, including tea region tours, tea garden excursions, tea-infused culinary experiences, tea-related exchanges, and tea art demonstrations. It is one of the pioneers in integrating tea culture with tourism in our city.
　　“Taking tea culture as the entry point and comprehensively developing a comprehensive tourism and leisure industry system is the trend in the development of the tea industry,” said Xie Mingzhi, General Manager of Huangshan Xie Yuda Tea Co., Ltd. He added that, in the next step, the company will take tea-themed travel courses as the foundation and integrate local Huangshan specialties such as Huizhou ink and Huizhou-style architecture into its study-travel programs, thereby creating an integrated, large-scale study-travel curriculum.
　　Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles. Today in Huangshan, tea plantations are no longer just a tourist attraction—they’ve become “walking” classrooms that broaden the horizons of both tourists and young students.
　　Checking in at tea landmarks—Recently, at Huangshan Liubaili Houkui Tea Industry Co., Ltd., the Taiping Houkui Tea Culture Museum is making its final preparations before opening. Once open, this museum will become a new destination for tourists seeking to learn about Taiping Houkui tea.
　　“The first floor is the exhibition area, and the second floor is the experience zone, where you can watch tea ceremony performances…” said Fan Tao, the company’s chairman, enthusiastically to the reporter.
　　Huangshan is located in the magical golden tea-growing belt at 30 degrees north latitude, where tea cultivation has a long history—records of tea planting date back to the late Han and Three Kingdoms periods, more than 1,800 years ago. How can we give this millennial tea culture a more vivid and tangible expression? In Huangshan, a number of tea-themed museums—including the Xie Yuda Tea Museum, the China Keemun Black Tea Museum, and the China Keemun Black Tea Science and Technology Expo Park—have provided the answer. Here, visitors can gain a clear understanding of the origins and evolution of Huangshan’s thousand-year-old tea culture, and these museums are increasingly becoming new must-visit landmarks for tourists.
　　“Building a tea culture museum is all about clearly explaining the history of Taiping Houkui to visitors, further enhancing the cultural brand of Taiping Houkui, and boosting the development of the tourism industry,” said Fan Tao. Relying on blockchain technology, the company has now achieved traceability—every single tea leaf, from picking to sale, is uniquely identified by a single code. After the tea culture museum opens, we’ll also embed tea-related knowledge from the museum into QR codes, enabling customers to enjoy both a reassuring taste and a rich cultural experience with every cup of tea they drink.
　　Staying overnight amidst the aroma of tea—a single cup of tea draws countless people. From studying in Huangshan and touring Huangshan, to now, more and more people are choosing to live in Huangshan.
　　The smooth slate pavement, towering horse-head walls, and exquisitely carved brick doorways—every detail at Jiang Xiangtai Homestay on Doushan Street in Shexian County exudes an authentic, time-honored cultural ambiance. “We’re not only a homestay but also a tea culture exhibition hall,” said Hu Shuqin, the homestay’s manager, as she brewed this year’s fresh tea for our reporter. “In addition to providing accommodation services, we’ve incorporated various elements of tea culture into our public spaces, offering tea enthusiasts a platform for learning and exchanging ideas about tea.”
　　As rural leisure tourism gains popularity, the homestay industry is booming. Unique and distinctly themed homestays that offer a strong sense of place can meet tourists’ diverse needs. In Huangshan, tea culture has infused soul into the development of these distinctive homestays.
　　On the first floor of Jiang Xiangtai Homestay, you’ll find an array of exhibits—including a bronze sculpture of a tea maker, an antique tea-rolling machine, and bamboo tea baskets. Hu Shuqin loves chatting with guests about tea stories and sharing fascinating insights into the history of the Jiang Xiangtai Tea Brand. In the guestroom area, she has given each room a unique name inspired by teas, such as “Shanghai Tea Fragrance,” “English Black Tea,” and “Jade Pot Fragrance.” The guestroom decor is also steeped in the essence of tea, and each room features a dedicated tea-drinking area equipped with exquisite tea sets, creating an intimate and cozy tea-tasting space.
　　“This is the best experience I’ve ever had staying at a homestay,” said Mr. Zhang, a tourist from Beijing, who stayed at Jiang Xiangtai Homestay for eight days during the Qingming holiday. “The environment here is very comfortable—you can enjoy tea ceremonies and experience the Huizhou tea ritual, relaxing your body and mind in the tea and shedding all your fatigue.”
　　“Right now, we’re planning to leverage our own tea gardens and tea factories to extend the tea experience from indoors to outdoors—so that guests staying at our homestays can enjoy tea-themed accommodations, savor tea-infused cuisine, explore tea gardens, and admire breathtaking tea landscapes,” said Hu Shuqin.