Huxinting (Mid-lake Pavilion) Tea House

Perhaps one of my favorite places in China, Shanghai's Huxinting Tea House is an oasis of comfort in one of the most bustling metropolises in the world.

The tea house was originally built, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), as part of the Yuyuan Garden. It is a pavilion located in the middle of a man-made lake, which gives it its name of "Huxinting", which translates as; Mid-lake Pavilion. In 1855, during the reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Xian Feng, the pavilion was restored and turned into a tea house. It is a two storey structure in classical Chinese architectural style and the atmosphere inside is truly wonderful.

Currently, the tea house is located outside the entrance to the Yuyuan Garden. It is situated between the classic garden, and the Yuyuan Market, which is built with traditional Chinese architectural styles. During the day, the market, garden, and the tea house are packed wall to wall with tourists and it is almost impossible to access the tea house. But, in the evening, the tourists are all gone and all that is left are the locals strolling through the market. It is then that the Huxinting Tea House really shines. The tea house is virtually empty and the atmosphere is so soothing. I like to go to the second floor next to a window and just enjoy the views of the market. No matter what tea your order, you are given a place of traditional Shanghai tea snacks to eat with your tea. They compliment the tea wonderfully. The tea at the tea house is quite good. It is more expensive than if you were to buy the tea in a shop, but you are paying for the atmosphere, use of their tea ware, and the service. It is well worth it in my opinion.
Whenever I visit Shanghai, I make a stop at the Huxinting Tea House. I will generally go the first time by myself and the second evening, I will call some of my local Shanghai friends and invite them for tea. Either way, I settle in for the evening and it is truly joyous.
If you go to Shanghai, please do not miss the tea house, and if you go to the tea house, go in the evening.

To see more photos of the Huxinting Tea House, visit my Flickr photo albums at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37908265@N08/sets/72157626767368767/

http://www.chinese-tea-culture.com/

18 Imperial Dragon Well Tea Trees

Located in Hangzhou, not far from Dragon Well Village are the 18 Imperial Dragon Well Tea Trees. The site is awesome and really worth a visit. The site centers around, as the name implies, the 18 imperial tea trees. According to legend, when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Qianlong came to Hangzhou on one of his many imperial tours, he visited this very spot and picked tea from these 18 trees. It is said that it was he who helped create the flattened leaf that Dragon Well (Longjing) Tea has. While he was there picking tea, he received message that his mother was deathly ill, and so he quickly shoved the leaves he was picking in his sleeve, and flew to Beijing. Upon arriving at his mother's bedside, she smelled the tea aroma eminating from his sleeves and inquired about it. He had forgotten the tea and it has dried and flattened. He brewed it for his mother and she miraculously recovered and all was well. Nobody knows how much of the rumor is true, but that does not take away from the beauty of the site. The site is backed up to a mountain which is covered with tea trees. Dotting the area are tea houses and tea pavilions. There are place, of all description, to brew tea, which they do for visitors. Climbing the paths up the mountain bring you upon simple pavilions to also drink tea. Although the tea from the 18 tea trees goes straight to the government, they do have some wonderful tea to drink and sell, although it is not cheap to purchase. I highly recommend this site to anyone visiting Hangzhou.

For more photos of this site visit our Flickr Photo Album at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37908265@N08/sets/72157626674681110/

Hangzhou's Dragon Well Tea Plantation

On virtually every single China tour that includes Hangzhou is a stop at the Hangzhou Dragon Well Tea Plantation. Unfortunately, it is a site designed strictly for the selling of fake Dragon Well Tea and souvenirs. I also work in Chinese tourism and I have been there several times on inspection tours. The site is located in the middle of tea fields, but is not connected with them. Although there are some very nice photo opportunities there, that is about all there is. Visitors are dropped off at the entrance and are met by a guide who describes how the tea is picked. They are then shown how the tea is fried before being taken into one of the many tea rooms where they are given tea to drink. After given a sales pitch, the people are lead through a souvenir shop which is the only way to exit the site, and then leave. I found that the tea that is given as a sample is not the same tea you purchase, although you are told it is the same. The tea you are given is much poorer quality. There are a couple of very nice Dragon Well Tea sites in Hangzhou, that should not be missed, like the China National Tea Museum, the 18 Imperial Tea Trees, and the Dragon Well, but this one certainly can be.

For more photos you can check out my Flicker photo album

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37908265@N08/sets/72157626622187974/

Spring Tea in Guilin

If you read my earlier post you will see that I got distracted on my way to the tea plantation near my house by some ancient imperial Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) tombs. It turned my adventures from a few hours, to all day. After I explored the tombs, I went to the plantation to get some photos of women picking tea, tea processing, and the tea fields. I also wanted to purchase some tea for my tea shops and website: http://www.chinese-tea-culture.com/

The visit was a lot of fun. The tea plantation makes Maojian Tea, a type of Green Tea, and some Gui Hong Cha, a type of Chinese Red Tea. They make some incredible teas there. It is kind of an interesting place, because it also accepts tours, but the tourists who visit are only taken to one field and are only given mediocre teas to sample. The get the really good teas, you need to actually know the people there. The tea plantation has a research center, where scientists are always working to try to improve their teas. It is a fun place for me.

I came in through the back way, because of my ancient tomb detour, and took a bunch of photos of row upon row of tea trees. The area is quite large and the tea trees go on as far as the eye can see. I met some old women picking tea from their own personal tea trees and we chatted a while. After a while, I came across a young girl picking tea. We chatted about tea, her work, and tea. She said she was picking some tea for herself, so I asked if she wanted help. We spend about two hours picking tea. When we finished, we headed back to where they process the tea. They have buildings filled with machines for processing tea, but we went to the area where they hand-produce the teas.

The first step in processing the tea is frying. We took our freshly picked tea leaves and fried them to wilt the leaves. The wok's that they are fried in are 200 degrees Celcius and, as you can imagine, painful to use without the proper technique, and I burned my hands. When I finished mine, I watched the other girls fry their leaves, and it was really impressive to see. They certainly had a LOT more experience than me. After frying, the leaves are shaped into curled twists. After shaping, the tea is dried on a basket over the same wok that the leaves were fried in. They are constantly moved to ensure an even drying. Once it was done, the leaves were then left to cool, and bagged. I am quite happy with how my tea turned out. It isn't fantastic, by any stretch, but it looked good and it tasted ok. The experience was wonderful and something I love doing.

After I had my tea, I went to the labs to visit the scientists. They were sampling the new Maojian Green Tea from the spring production and asked me to join in the tasting. That was a fantastic experience. The teas were each incredible and we spent a few hours tasting and talking tea. Tea is tasted in special cups and bowls and each cup has a different tea in it. For the first batch, they were all Maojian, but the leaves each came from different areas of the plantation. Tree location has a lot to do with the teas flavor. The leaves were weighed out on a scale to ensure that each one was perfect. They were then brewed with a timer to ensure they were all brewed identically. The scientists, on tea sampling days, sample so much tea that they do not swallow it all. They spit it into a bucket. It's not too pleasant in my opinion, but wine tastings are done in a similar fashion. I preferred to drink the tea. Each tea was wonderful, but there were definate variance in them. After sampling the Maojian teas, we sampled the local Guihong Tea. I am a big fan of Hong Cha and enjoyed that a lot. I ended up bringing a LOT of tea back with me. The head scientist had them delivered to my shop, so I didn't have to carry it all, thank goodness.

All in all, it was a most wonderful day! I went for the tea and was surprised with history. That's one of the reasons I love China. You never know what surprises are awaiting for you. I've lived in Guilin for almost 8 years and gone to the tea plantation dozens of times, and never saw the tombs.

For more photos, check out my Flickr Photo Album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37908265@N08/sets/72157626374464987/