The Anthem Philatelist

Longjing aka Longhong or Longqiu sits on the Fenghuangling mountain on the southwest of West Lake. The ancient Chinese believed that the dragon lives here so name it after Longjing.    The famous Longjing tea of West Lake is produced in this village. In Ming and Qing era, the Longjing tea became famous because scholars and emperors highly regarded the tea. Qianlong emperor visited Longjing and adjudged its taste as one of Chinas's best.    Longjing is interlinked with the sea and the dragon lives in the sea so we call Longjing. Longjing's water is also very strange, for when stirring it. a line which separates the water appears on the surface like a swinging gossamer, then quickly disappears. Its spring water is clean and sweet. Longjing, Hupao and Yu spring are called the three famous springs of West lake. The souvenir sheet above features the West Lake in Hangzhou issued by China in 1989 .

The West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou , comprising the West Lake and the hills surrounding its three sides, has inspired famous poets, scholars and artists since the 9th century. It comprises numerous temples, pagodas, pavilions, gardens and ornamental trees, as well as causeways and artificial islands. This area is one of the latest to have earned the title UNESCO World Heritage site.   The West Lake has influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries and bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of vistas reflecting an idealized fusion between humans and nature.    Hangzhou is famous for three things: its water, its fertile and picturesque countrysi de, and ancient tradition- all three combined in a perfectly brewed cup of Longjing tea. A visit to the Longjing Tea Plantation makes for a nice side trip from Hangzhou's main attractions.    About 30 m...