Ningbo Dongqian Lake: Fuquan mountain tea fields

Ningbo Dongqian Lake 宁波东钱湖 is the largest natural freshwater lake in Zhejiang 浙江province. Although the main touristic sights might attract quite a lot of people especially during holidays, normally you can find a peaceful spot there and enjoy nature, silence and fresh air. For less crowd head to Fuquan Mountain which is close to the lake. It is for sure a great place to escape from busy city life; besides it is not that far away from the city center. There are several public buses going to Dongqian Lake too.

What to do at Dongqian Lake?

There are plenty of things to do at Dongqian Lake, for example, if you prefer active lifestyle, you can rent a bicycle and go explore around the lake. Different kind of watersports or just taking a boat on the lake is an option too. Families with kids can have a picnic at the beach near the lake, go to the Youngor zoo 雅戈尔动物园 or Dongqian Lake water park东钱湖水乐园. Water Park is opened from 9:30am till 10pm and costs 49RMB. Zoo opening hours are 8-8:30am till 4:30pm, depends on the season. Ticket price per person is 126RMB. Good thing is that all attractions are located very close. You can go even further up the mountains and visit Fuqaun Mountain 福泉山 which offers stunning views of lake from the top and you get to see beautiful tea plantations.

Tea fields

During my five year stay in China I never visited tea plantations that big, and didn’t even know there is this place in Ningbo. Neighboring Hangzhou and other cities in Zhejiang are famous tea producers. But if you have never seen those, and while planning your trip to China have put tea plantations on your list, you do not necessarily have to visit Hangzhou 杭州, Suzhou 苏州, Huangshan黄山 or Yunnan 云南 to see tea field. Even Ningbo, which is more famous with seafood but not tea, have a great sight to visit if you want to see tea plantation. Now I wouldn’t specially go to other city to see tea fields, because Fuquan Mountain had some truly beautiful views and we were happy of what we saw.

Walking up the Fuquan Mountain

It happened that the day we visited, area was closed, and no cars or buses were allowed to drive up the mountain, ticket office was closed. But we didn’t just give up and leave because it was not open. Although there were no buses leading up the mountain that day, we could still walk up by foot, so we did. The weather was perfect and we didn’t care much how many hours it will take.

With all the stops, photo taking, eating breaks and so on it took around 3 hours. That day we walked a lot and at the end of the day our muscles were swelling, however it was totally worth it. We started to go up the mountain around 11am and were down at 4pm.

Walking by foot or take a bus?

We followed the road and there was not a chance we could go somewhere wrong. And that’s why we were surprised that we didn’t find the most famous spot and the main peak 富泉峰. Walking up and seeing so much was great, however this is where we realized tourist bus would be very useful, because then we wouldn’t miss those spots. We saw a lot of signs and followed navigation, but Fengquan peak remained a mystery for us. Now we would probably go back to look for it again. We visited during winter, and I imagine that the scenery in spring should be even more beautiful.