莫干山 Mo Gan Mountain
It is said that some mountains have different personalities used to describe them. For example Mt. Hua in Xi’An has been said to have the personality of a young man because it is steep strenuous hiking for pretty much the entire path up. There are other mountains that are said to have the personality of elderly people or women. Mo Gan Mountain is said to have the personality of a woman.
This is the ideal place to take a stroll and enjoy the scenery. The path is said to not be very steep, so it would make for a relaxing experience. Not to mention, the path takes travelers through a bamboo forest and is said to be (in spring or summer) very lush and fragrant. Throughout the path on Mo Gan Mountain I have been told that there is also a lot of tree coverage and shade making a hike through Mo Gan Mountain all the more relaxing and pleasurable.
Now to be honest, I ran out of time while in Hang Zhou, so I didn’t have a chance to go to Mo Gan Mountain. However, this might be one of my biggest regrets of places that I haven’t been in China. With that said I wanted to include this area, so that other would not miss the same opportunities that I did.
There is also something called the naked castle at Mo Gan Mountain. I haven’t a clue what that means… If it is just the name or if it is actually a nudist hotel (I kind of doubt it). It does have a couple good reviews on Google though. It is supposed to be one of those relaxation hotel & spa combos I think, but honestly I couldn’t tell you much more than that.
How to get there?
The trip to Mo Gan Mountain will take between 2-3 hours (one way) by bus from Hang Zhou. It might be worth it to stay the night on or near the mountain, that should be considered if you’re planning a visit.
龙井茶园 The Long Jing Tea Fields (underwhelming)
This is another area that has potential to be a popular scenic area in Hang Zhou but falls a bit short. To start it isn’t the most well known area even to the local cab drivers of Hang Zhou, so getting there might be a bit of a challenge as they will just search the 龙井茶园 in Baidu Maps and take you to that spot. Maybe the owners of the tea fields have become more popular, decided to develop a website and link their address to Baidu maps since my visit in 2015 but because they didn’t at the time my friend and I were stuck walking aimlessly around the tea fields until we found a small teahouse to have lunch.
As I said the tea fields have potential because of the unique style of irrigation that is used to plant the tea leaves and the surrounding area. The tea fields are in the mountains of Hang Zhou, so the scenery is incredible. I personally think that it is a lot of effort to get to a place where there is limited things to do. At the time that I went there were no tours or guides to take you through the fields, things may have changed since then. However, due to the experience that I had when there I would not recommend a trip to the Long Jing Tea Fields.
International Kev 