Destinations: Shanghai, Hangzhou
Hangzhou School Tour: Tea Culture, Gardens & Water Towns
Hangzhou is Jiangnan - the China of canals, silk, green tea and classical scenery that poets have praised for a thousand years. This 6-day tour (entered and exited through Shanghai, one hour away by high-speed rail) takes students onto West Lake, into the Longjing tea hills to pick and taste the famous green tea, through the thousand-year courtyards of Lingyin Temple, and along the ancient canals of Wuzhen. It is the gentlest, most beautiful route on the list - perfect for culture, geography and art classes.
Optional Extensions
Day 1 - Shanghai to Hangzhou: Arrive at Shanghai Pudong or Hongqiao, transfer to the high-speed rail (about 1 hour) to Hangzhou. Evening walk along the Grand Canal - the waterway that made Hangzhou rich - with dinner in a canal-side restaurant.
Day 2 - West Lake: Morning boat across West Lake, the most celebrated lake in China: the causeways, the islands, the pagodas, and the poems carved into the scenery. Walk the Su Causeway's willow arches, climb Leifeng Pagoda for the panorama, and hear the legends of White Snake and the lake's thousand-year romance with poets.
Day 3 - Tea Country: Drive into the Longjing tea hills. Meet a tea-farming family, pick leaves in the terraces (spring and early summer), watch the hand-frying of green tea in the wok, and sit through a proper tea ceremony with Longjing, the emperor's tea. Afternoon at the China National Tea Museum, which explains 5,000 years of tea in one building.
Day 4 - Lingyin Temple & Silk: Morning at Lingyin Temple - the "Temple of the Soul's Retreat" - walking the grotto carvings of Feilai Feng and the grand halls with a guide who decodes Buddhist architecture and iconography; vegetarian lunch in the temple tradition. Afternoon at the China National Silk Museum: the silkworm, the loom and the silk road in sequence.
Day 5 - Water Town: Full day at Wuzhen, the best-preserved canal town in the region: boat rides along the waterways, the wood-carving and dyeing workshops, and a hands-on blue-print (indigo) dyeing session where each student makes a small cloth to keep.
Day 6 - Return to Shanghai: Morning rail back to Shanghai; airport transfer for departure (or continue to a longer programme).
