Slow Water, New Leaves: A Spring Week in Hangzhou

Hangzhou(杭州) in spring is not something you take in with your eyes. It asks you to receive it with your whole body, and to slow down, and actually fall into the rhythm of the city. For me, two things made that happen: stepping into a hand-rowed boat on West Lake, and picking tea leaves by hand in the hills above Meijiawu(梅家坞)Village, just before Qingming.