Greetings from Shenyang...it's finally Spring...better not blink, or it will be summer! As many of you know, Rod has in the US visiting friends and family for about 2 weeks now and I will join him around the 11th of May and meet him in Greenville, SC, then I'll work for a week followed by about 10 days of vacation. I'm really looking forward to it!
This weekend, I rested yesterday and today, I went out with my friend Zoe Min and my driver and we went shopping around town, starting at WuAi market (the big market I spoke of in a previous update) and ended up in a tea market. This was something new for me...it was, like many other markets in China..huge! Nothing but tea...green tea, red tea, black tea...tea pots, tea tables...everything tea! Rod and I have grown to like the tea here in China...it is an acquired taste as it is drunk without sugar (blasphemous for all my friends in the South!). There is a ritual and method that comes with drinking tea...first you boil water, (exact temperature tested with a "tea toy" which comes in many forms...most blow water bubbles when the temperature is correct. The, when the temperature is correct, you wash the cups and the tea, then you put the washed tea in a tea pot and fill it up with water, then very quickly, you will pour out the tea into the tea cups (doesn't really seep). The whole process is quite messy, thus they do all this pouring on a large table with drain holes in it. It's normal that all of the tea shops have a place where you can try the tea before you buy. Teas are collected like wines...some very expensive! All of the stuff that goes along with teas can also be expensive...tea pots, tea cups, tea toys, tea tables, tea...well, you get the idea!
Here are a few pictures of my experience at the tea market...I'll probably be going back when I have not already spent my time shopping at another market...there were some really nice things at the tea market...worth a return visit!
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| Outside the tea market in Shenyang...all things tea starts with the biggest tea pot in the world! |
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| Big tea tree with each round of tea stacked on top of each other...this is a very expensive tree of tea I'm told! |
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| The tea table store...a little too big to ship home! |
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| Sarah standing beside the tea bagging machine while my tea is being vacuum packed |
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| All types of fresh teas at the market |
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| Sarah in th tea store...all kinds of teas in the store |
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| Green tea...this is the type I bought at the market and had bagged up |
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| tasting a little green tea at the shop |
So that's about it for today's Update and Tea market experience! I will not be able to write again until after I get back from the US..so until then, have a great Spring ya'll!
Sarah
