GUILIN -- GUANGZHOU -- ZHONGSHAN

October 23, 2014

October 23rd, Part 2

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During our last morning in Guilin, we visited a tea plantation. There (besides getting to wear cool hats in the field) we learned a lot about tea. First we learned how the number of leaves picked affects the quality of the leaves. Then we learned how the tea leaves are prepared for drying. More...



I think everyone's favourite learning experience, however, was actually getting to taste the tea in the "Tea 101" room (Tea 101 for Dummies??). The young man showed us how to properly prepare different teas and we even learned the proper etiquette for drinking the tea AND for showing our appreciation of it. Being an avid tea drinker myself, I found myself spending more money than I would have believed I would on a variety of teas, in particular, one variety which was "Liu Bao Compress Tea". Long and short of it: tea bags are for tea Neanderthals and the more exclusive the parts of the tea plant used, the richer the tea is but... you need to be rich to buy any.
After leaving the plantation, we went directly to the airport for a short trip to Guangzhou. Once there, we visited the ancestral home of the Chen Clan. The buildings now house the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum. There, I found Chinese inks for painting but still no "inside bottle" paint brushes. One disturbing room at the museum was the one full of ivory. I suppose the carvings are actually old but the fact that animals lost their lives for the elaborate sculptures is still sad.
It was then time to drive to Zhongshan by coach. Along the way, we saw many fish farms and also produce farms. It appeared as if very little land in this area goes to waste. We finally arrived at the Sheraton Hotel we would be staying at for the night. We had the evening off to go exploring. We crossed the river on an elaborate foot bridge to get into a shopping mall whose main focus seemed to be clothing. Because this area is known for technology, I was interested in finding a computer store. However, Roberta, Otto, Alma, and I wandered around a shopping street so long that when we finally headed towards the reported "big computer store", we learned that it had already closed for the evening. Oh well. We did see other interesting stores and because I was curious, Otto found out why the price tags on the gold items were so cheap. Yes, they WERE real gold... many 24 carat. The prices on the items indicated how much one would pay for the workmanship needed to create the object. Using that day's price of gold, the item being bought would be weighed and that cost would be added to the cost of the labour. What an interesting (and I think fair) way to do it!