Brewing culture

The entrance of the tea museum.

The museum, set among plantations that emanate from surrounding peaks near chockablock teahouses run by farmers, is regarded among China's most beautiful.

Six exhibition halls present the plant's social and scientific dimensions－from history to health, customs to chemicals－with displays that range from early relics to the latest research.

The establishment chronicles how tea drinking emerged from China's southwestern jungles as a medicinal concoction to become the sophisticate's pour of choice－and eventually the world's most popular beverage (after water).

Legend holds that its homeopathic properties were divined nearly five millennia ago by Shennong, a quasi-mythical medicine man sometimes depicted as sporting ox horns.

About 2,500 years later, a monk in Southwest China cultivated the plants in a temple－a trend that spread throughout the nation. Visiting Chinese elite got their first taste during pilgrimages to these places of worship.

Tea retains a spiritual component, and Longjing, in particular, has for centuries been associated with Chan Buddhist meditation.

And it sustains a sacred role in contemplative intellectual pursuits, as painters, poets and artists have incorporated it in their creative processes for centuries.

Hangzhou's history as a prosperous place due to abundant natural resources means it was frequently graced by the likes of emperors and illuminati.