There's No Me in Tea

We took a trip to Huangzhou, a mere 3.5 hours from Shanghai, to visit Alibaba, which is the Yahoo, Ebay, Yellow Pages, PayPal and general all-knowing higher being of the Chinese web. The building included rows and rows of young marketers, tech geniuses, and sales callers, all of whom, we were informed, could stand on their hands at the time of hiring. This talent strategy would not fly in other locales, but the Chinese are famous for both their gymnasts and their deference to power. So they stood on their hands and landed jobs. Alibaba also runs on a cult of personality of sorts, centered on founder Jack Ma, the aggressive net imperialist. The business was interesting, but we were all glad that there were other things to see in Huangzhou.

Huangzhou is actually known as a sort of “heaven on earth” in Chinese lore and travel brochures, although it’s now the site of countless cookie-cutter homes which have given it the nickname “Disneyland”(see right). The quiet lake is framed by hills of temples and willows draping over foot paths.

The old-style ferries are also popular as school trips.

We rounded out the afternoon at an area tea plantation, where they harvest only the top sprigs on the leaf three times a year.

The spring harvest is the most prized, as it’s had the longest time to grow, whereas the summer harvest is the poorest quality, and has the most caffeine. Their priorities are a little different from ours, I think. So, typically, the women picked the leaves all day while the men dried them. These days packing is an art as well, and our tour guide let us know that she was an expert, meaning that we would get as much tea as possible, should we choose to purchase there!

We were treated to a tea ceremony, which began with an expert pourer. She entreated us to first try the tea with our eyes… this is supposed to be soothing. It depends on how hot the tea is!

Much like wine tasting, you progress from smelling to sipping the tea. We were also provided with tea condiments, which looked like mushrooms and orange peels to me.

From now on, what you put in your tea is your own business. I don’t want to know.

Apparently, in China people often drink straight from the pot, which I never saw while I was there.

The piece de resistance was a flower tea ceremony, which approximated a refined, eastern version of the capsules that turn into spongy dinosaurs with hot water.