Old Longjing 老龙井

Out taxi driver dropped us at the Longjing Tea Village, which was a pleasant village on the mountain top. Practically all the houses here specialize in Longjing Tea for which Hangzhou is famous for. According to the driver, the houses take turns in accepting visitor/customers hoping they would buy from them. I guess that is a good system as it will avoid competition where the customer gets bombarded by numerous touts the moment they arrive at the village. Our first encounter with the Longjing Tea Village was at Old Longjing 老龙井 or Old Dragon Well. And true to its name, there was a well in front of the house, and a very old one at that. This particular well dates back to the Southern Song Dyanasty 南宋.

The well was supposedly made by the God of Longevity, to whom the purity of the water is also attributed. The people at the well, encouraged us to take water from the well and drink from it. The water is naturally pure and sweet, however, I stil have reservations about drinking water from untreated sources. I’m wary that I would get sick from drinking the water that I politely declined.

My friend however tried her hand in getting a pail of water from the well, old school style. At once, she asked for my help as the pail was very heavy. Then I noticed furrows on the sides of the well, these were made by constant friction made by the rope on the sides of the well, attesting to the age of the well. I gamely washed my hands and face in the icy cold water, which was quite refreshing, after which i decided to take a walk around the village.

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