Hecun makes the news for a cave. The village itself is about tea. Hecun (何村村) has more than 1,000 mu of tea gardens, about 67 hectares, and here the tea is the view as well as the crop. The 1,600 mu you may read online comes from an encyclopedia page, not a dated report. This is the Hecun Moganshan tea village as the written record has it.
More than 1,000 mu of tea in Hecun, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 11 October 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/10/11/035068048.shtml
Moganshan (莫干山) is a bamboo mountain and former hill station in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang, about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. It is not Moganshan Road in Shanghai, the M50 art district. Hecun is one of the villages at its foot.
Hecun village: what it is and where
Hecun sits next door to Xiantan, the guesthouse village. A 2021 post on Sohu (搜狐) explains the doubled name: a river once ran through the place, so it was the river village, 河村, and the character 何, which sounds the same, replaced it. That is local lore as one writer published it, not a record. The same post counts six hamlets. Three names matter to a visitor, and the dated reports below use them: Xiawuli (下坞里), Fangcunwu (方村坞) and Shuiwuli (水坞里).
Hecun next to Xiantan, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 1 April 2019, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/huzhounews/201904/t20190401_9800306.shtml
The name and the six hamlets, Sohu (搜狐), self media post, 3 April 2021, tier 4, as published. https://www.sohu.com/a/458674030_441981
Hecun has been choosy about tourism. In 2019 a village committee member, Dong Naxin (董纳新), told Zhejiang Online that Hecun had auctioned the use of 11 mu of collective land, put part of the money into a rented shop in the county town and a project stake, and drew RMB 60,000 a year from them. The town had also brought in a tea culture project and an outdoor sports project, both, he said, picked over and over before they said yes.
The 11 mu, the RMB 60,000 and the two projects, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 1 April 2019, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/huzhounews/201904/t20190401_9800306.shtml
We found no dated source for the village’s population or area, so neither is given here.
The free things in Hecun
None of what follows has a published admission price. That is not the same as free. Ask.
The magnolia lane. Xiawuli has a road lined with white magnolias (白玉兰) that fills with photographers when they flower, which in 2021 was by 23 February. A government publicity account noted fewer trees, and fewer people, at Shuiwuli. The date moves with the winter, so check a recent post before driving out.
The magnolia avenue at Xiawuli in flower, and Shuiwuli quieter, The Paper (澎湃新闻), government account, 24 February 2021, tier 4, as published. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11441726
The tea slopes. Looking costs nothing. The local tea is Mogan Huangya (莫干黄芽), a yellow tea by name, though most of what is sold under that name has been made as a green tea, Deqing News reported in September 2026. Our Mogan Huangya guide covers the crop, the picking season and the yellow or green question.
Most Mogan Huangya made as green tea, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 22 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/22/035296333.shtml
The cave at Tongguanshan
The cave cafe, Yujian Dixin (遇见地心, roughly “meeting the Earth’s centre”), opened to the public in April 2025 in a large cave at Shuiwuli on Tongguanshan (铜官山). The designers added lighting, art, an artificial waterfall and a viewing platform. Our cave and quarry cafe guide has the operator, the retired miners who came back to see it, and what to ask before going.
Opening, location and fittings, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 23 April 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/04/23/034938332.shtml
What the cave was is less settled than the photographs suggest. Four reports between April and August 2025 gave three accounts.
| What the cave is called | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|
| A natural cave | Deqing News, and People’s Daily Overseas Edition (人民日报海外版) | 23 April and 30 May 2025 |
| A disused Hecun copper mine worked in the 1950s | Deqing News | 20 June 2025 |
| A Han dynasty copper mine | Deqing News | 20 August 2025 |
Natural cave, People’s Daily Overseas Edition (人民日报海外版), 30 May 2025, tier 2. https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202505/30/content_30076370.html; 1950s working, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 20 June 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/06/20/034989205.shtml; Han dynasty copper mine, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 20 August 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/08/20/035030945.shtml
No archaeological survey is cited in any of them. Forty retired copper and iron miners recognised the workings in May 2025. That fits the 1950s account; it neither proves nor rules out an older one.
The retired miners, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 14 May 2025, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/05/14/034957464.shtml
For the village, the cave is income. Its car park and facilities were put at about RMB 350,000 a year for the village collective in April 2025, and at RMB 300,000 in August.
About RMB 350,000 a year, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 23 April 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/04/23/034938332.shtml; RMB 300,000 a year, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 20 August 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/08/20/035030945.shtml
Hecun, Moganshan: tea and food
Plan to eat where you sleep. We found no dated report naming a restaurant in the village, and eight of the eleven Hecun listings we hold say they have one.
Facilities on 11 captured Trip.com listings with a Hecun address, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 7 November 2026.
The tea cafe is the exception. Yunzai Hechu (云在何处, “where are the clouds”) sits on the tea slope at Fangcunwu. He Xiaobin (何晓斌), a local man, had leased 38 mu of tea and chestnut trees three years before the paper’s October 2025 report. He turned an empty rammed earth house into a cafe and opened it in mid September 2025. The menu leans on the village: yellow tea, and a chestnut coffee. You walk up from a car park through the chestnut grove (the paper’s description; we have no map pin to offer).
The cafe, its 38 mu and its opening, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 11 October 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/10/11/035068048.shtml
It was still open in September 2026, when Deqing News reported that anyone buying a chestnut drink could walk into the grove beside it and pick, free, until about the middle of October.
Still trading, and the chestnut picking, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 22 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/22/035296333.shtml; 17 September 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/09/17/035293730.shtml
Buying tea is informal. He told the paper that visitors who come for the view often buy tea from the villagers afterwards. He also planned winter sessions of tea brewed by the stove once the snow came. That was a plan in October 2025, not a timetable; ask before counting on it.
To show a driver, the characters are 何村村方村坞 云在何处 for the tea cafe and 水坞里 遇见地心 for the cave.
The tea sales and the winter plan, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 11 October 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/10/11/035068048.shtml
Staying in Hecun
Of the 809 Moganshan listings we captured from Trip.com in August 2026, eleven give a Hecun address. Six list an outdoor pool. Two are at Xiawuli, one at Fangcunwu; the rest give a house number or a group number only. One trap: Aideri Tongguanzhuang, whose name echoes Tongguanshan, lists its address in Wusi village, not Hecun.
Listing addresses and facilities, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026, compiled 7 November 2026.
A short list, chosen for what the record says about each. We rank and rate none of them and print no rates. Each had a guest review dated 2026 in our capture, which is our evidence it is trading.
| Listing | Address as listed | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| Mogan Mountain Linyuqingshe Homestay | No. 44, Hecun | Lists a pool, a playground and a kids’ club |
| Moganshan Yishanjing single family villa | No. 24 Xiawuli | In the magnolia lane’s hamlet; a whole house, by its name |
| NO.5 Niaoqing Mountain | No. 5 Xiawuli | Also at Xiawuli; lists a restaurant and a pool |
| Mohe Guesthouse | No. 26, Hecun | Lists a restaurant; captured reviews single out the breakfast |
| Moganshan Youguangde Difang Homestay | Hecun, near a company building, as listed | Its review summary mentions bamboo and a reservoir |
Addresses, facilities and the latest review dates, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026.
Most are minsu (民宿), small family guesthouses; what a minsu is covers booking one.
The walk to Hecun
This is a desk route; nobody on this desk has walked it.
In spring 2019 the county published a 12 km magnolia and pear blossom walk from Yucun square (庾村广场) by way of Sword Pond (剑池), Luhuadang park (芦花荡公园), Yinshan Street (荫山街), the Shiyisi reservoir (石颐寺水库), the Laoling old road (劳岭古道) and Laoling village, ending at Hecun’s magnolias. The same programme gave a 16 km cycle route: Yucun square, Hecun Xiawuli, the Jiuqi riding camp (久祺国际骑行营), then Wusi.
The walk and the cycle route, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 5 April 2019, tier 2. https://huzhou.zjol.com.cn/qy/dqx18223/201904/t20190405_9837182.shtml
Sword Pond sits inside the ticketed scenic area, so this walk needs a ticket; tickets and entry has the published prices, which disagree. No timing or climb was published. Plan on a full day, and a car back.
The riding camp on the cycle route still appears in our capture with a Hecun address, as a campground with a restaurant; its latest guest review there is dated October 2025. Whether it hires bicycles today, the listing does not say.
The camp’s listing, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, captured 8 August 2026.
Who should base in Hecun
Hecun suits drivers who want Xiantan’s quieter neighbour, and tea drinkers who come in the spring picking weeks. It suits anyone chasing the magnolias in late February, if the winter allows.
Families who will use a pool and eat in will be fine.
It does not suit anyone without a car. We found no published bus line to the village, and the guesthouse kitchen is your restaurant. The villages below Moganshan sets out the others, and getting around covers the taxis.
The honest downside
The cave brings cars. In August 2025 a 76 year old villager was directing the parking.
The parking, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 20 August 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/08/20/035030945.shtml
The rest of the year is quieter, and thinner. The magnolias give one late winter flowering and the chestnuts about a month in autumn. Tea picking fills the spring. Outside those weeks Hecun is tea slopes and guesthouses, and the written record on it is short.
Last checked 8 November 2026 by Echo Peng. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
