Ruins of the Zhang Family Tea Garden

Ruins of the Zhang Family Tea Garden

The ruins of the Zhang Family Tea Garden are a protected cultural heritage site of Jiaxing City.

The Zhang Family Tea Garden is located in Chaxiangfang Community, Tanghui Subdistrict, Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing City (formerly Chayuan Village). It borders rivers on the southwest sides, has a rectangular shape, and covers an area of approximately 1,300 square meters. The tea field is raised about 1.3 meters above the ground. According to descendants of the Zhang family, the tea garden has a history of 303 years, dating back to the early Qing Dynasty. Their ancestor, Mr. Zhang, was once a teacher. He transported mountain tea plants from a certain place in the “Upper Eight Prefectures” of Zhejiang to a highland west of Yanma Bang, where he cultivated them for two years before successfully transplanting them. From then on, the tea was harvested and sold annually under the brand name “Jiayuan Mingcha” (Home Garden Famous Tea), becoming a specialty of Jiaxing. In the second year of the Xuantong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1910), when the Nanyang Industrial Exposition was held in Nanjing by the Qing government, the Zhang family’s tea was submitted as an exhibit and won a gold medal. Before and after the liberation, the yield increased to around 100 jin (approximately 50 kilograms). In 1963, the tea garden was transferred to collective ownership and management by the Zhang family, but continued to be known as “Zhangyuan Mingcha.” In 2008, it was sold to Tanghui Subdistrict for 280,000 yuan. Flatland regions like Jiaxing rarely cultivate tea trees, making the long-preserved Zhang Family Tea Garden quite unique. Its tea had a notable influence in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai regions and holds significant historical research value. It was designated as a municipal-level cultural heritage site of Jiaxing in 2009.

Source: Jiaxing Cultural Relics Protection Office

Chaxiangfang Community: Established in December 2005, Chaxiangfang Community in Tanghui Subdistrict is recognized as a democratic and law-based community in Zhejiang Province and a municipal-level civilized unit in Jiaxing. The community spans an area of 2 square kilometers and consists of the resettlement housing complex Chaxiangfang Residential Area, commercial residential areas Yulongwan Residential Area and Yuhuamingdu Residential Area, as well as Phase II of the industrial park. The community currently has a registered population of 2,253 people, comprising 897 households, and 2,554 non-registered residents. Among the registered population, there are 445 elderly individuals aged 60 and above, accounting for 20.03% of the total. Since its establishment, the community has been committed to providing high-quality and convenient services for its residents... For more details about Chaxiangfang Community ++