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.