Province strives to strike a delicate balance

Zhang Yan still remembers the first time she picked up a tea whisk. Her hand trembled. The slender bamboo tool felt awkward in her fingers, and no matter how hard she tried, the tea refused to foam.

That was in 2022, shortly after she joined the Da Jingshan Tourist Information Center at the foot of Jingshan, a mountain in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, renowned for its thousand-year-old tea culture.

Before taking the job, Zhang had never worked in tourism, nor had she practiced the Song Dynasty (960-1279) method of whisked tea preparation known as diancha.

"They taught me everything from scratch — how to whisk, how the foam should look, even how to taste the tea properly," she says.

"The key is keeping your hand steady while maintaining speed and strength. If the force is uneven, the foam will collapse."

Today, Zhang demonstrates the technique to visitors from around the world, guiding them through a ritual once popular among Song Dynasty scholars and literati.

"At first, many guests can't get it," she says with a laugh. "But once they understand the rhythm, they can whisk a beautiful bowl themselves."

Her transformation reflects a broader shift underway in Zhejiang, where officials and tourism workers are trying to balance standardized services with deeply local cultural experiences.

At the Da Jingshan center, free shuttle buses run continuously up the mountain. Staff members provide multilingual assistance in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean. Last year, the buses transported 2.6 million passengers.

The center's operations align with ISO 14785, the international standard for tourist information services.

Yet for Liu Yanli, the center's deputy manager, the goal is not simply efficiency.

"Standards should help visitors experience the culture better," Liu says. "They are not meant to make every destination the same."

That idea lies at the heart of Zhejiang's tourism development strategy.

"Tourism services need standardization, but they cannot be completely standardized," says Chen Guangsheng, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism.

"Otherwise, every city becomes identical. We need to find the balance between standards and individuality."

He points to rural homestays as an example. Zhejiang has established unified requirements for hygiene, safety and service quality, while encouraging villages to preserve their own architectural styles, customs and local traditions.

"That is the balance we are striving for," Chen says. He believes the province's emphasis on standards has deep historical roots.

The Kaogongji, a Chinese crafts manual compiled more than 2,000 years ago, documented precise specifications for the production of tools and vehicles. In Zhejiang, Tang Dynasty (618-907) celadon production followed strict technical systems, while the mortise-and-tenon structure of Ningbo's Baoguo Temple later became a reference point for traditional Chinese architecture.

"The genes of standardization have been here since ancient times," Chen says.

But Zhejiang's tourism officials also insist that modern standards should leave room for creativity and emotional connection.

That philosophy is on display at the Tourism College of Zhejiang in Hangzhou.

During a recent class, associate professor Zhang Chunli guided students as they arranged themed tea tables inspired by traditional aesthetics and modern lifestyles.

One design drew inspiration from A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, the famed Song Dynasty landscape painting in blue-green tones. Silk fabrics in jade and turquoise tones surrounded a single celadon teacup.

Another installation, titled Forest Time, abandoned conventional tea settings altogether. Glass cups, white lace and soft green accents created a relaxed atmosphere that felt closer to a contemporary cafe than a traditional tea room.

"People today are under a lot of pressure," Zhang says. "Tea gives them a moment to slow down."

She explains that students must earn three national certifications before graduation, covering tea art, tea evaluation and tea beverage preparation.

"They first learn the standards," she says. "Then they learn how to innovate based on those."

A short drive away, Jingshan village has turned those ideas into a thriving rural tourism business. Visitors can pick tea leaves with local farmers, roast them in woks using traditional methods, and take the finished tea home.

"What tourists experience is exactly the same process we use," says Sheng Dong, the village's Party secretary.

When the village began promoting tourism in 2019, most villagers simply sold tea leaves.

"Tourists came, but they didn't know what to do," he recalls.

Now, nearly every household participates in tourism-related businesses. Children wearing bamboo hats carry tea baskets through the hillsides, while families gather around roasting stoves to teach visitors the craft.

The village has received tourists from more than 50 countries, with over 30,000 people participating in tea-related experiences last year alone.

"More visitors come through word of mouth," Sheng says. The province's efforts have also caught the attention of international tourism experts.

Alexandre Garrido, a Brazilian specialist in smart tourism, visited Hangzhou in May during an international tourism standards meeting. It was his first trip to China.

"The people here are incredibly welcoming," Garrido says. "And everything was very well organized, from transportation to cultural activities."

Persi Leonardo, another Brazilian expert focusing on adventure tourism, paid particular attention to accessibility facilities at the Da Jingshan center.

He noticed entrance ramps, multilingual signs and facilities designed for elderly travelers and families with young children.

"The spaces think about all kinds of visitors," Leonardo says.

What impressed him most, however, was how visitors were encouraged to participate rather than simply observe.

"It's not just showing tourists the tea-making process," he says. "It's letting them become part of it."

Maria Velasco Gonzalez, a tourism policy scholar from Spain, had a similar impression after trying her hand at making whisked tea.

"They guided us through every step," she says. "I could understand not only how to do it, but also why it mattered." For her, that combination of professionalism and cultural warmth left a lasting impression.

Authorities in Zhejiang say the province has built a system that trains students to meet national certification requirements, guides villages in turning tea leaves into tourism products, and runs information centers that serve millions of visitors each year.

Those working in tourism businesses also insist that what visitors remember most is something harder to quantify, such as a bowl of whisked tea, a village story, or the warmth of the people serving them.