After breakfast this morning, our group went to the Guilin Tea Science and Research Institute. They have a huge organic tea farm and we learned all sorts of interesting things about how tea is made. We began the tour by picking tea leaves in the hot sun. There were rows and rows of tea trees, but they look more like bushes because they are kept pruned so short. We learned that the different types of tea (white, green, yellow, and black) all come from the same trees, but the leaves are picked in different stages. The white tea is when the leaves are picked when they are very small, new leaves and they are much more delicate. The black tea, on the other hand, is from leaves that are larger and more mature. The tour guide from the tea place showed us some of the biggest leaves and asked if anybody knew if they used these leaves or not. He said that they don't use the old, really big leaves except as a mulch for the soil, because they are bitter and don't have good flavor. But then he said that some farms do use them to grind up and put into tea bags to sell to other countries. The Chinese look down their noses at using tea bags to make tea. I guess they are "tea snobs" the way some people in the US are "coffee snobs," ha ha! But our new guide for Guilin, David, told us that Chinese people don't really know anything about coffee and if you asked most Chinese people what kind of coffee is the best, they would say Nestle instant coffee from the grocery store. Anyway, after picking tea leaves for a little while, we learned how they process the leaves by kneading them and drying them. Different types are processed differently - the more delicate white tea leaves are not kneaded and they are dried at lower temperatures. Also, the higher grade teas are processed by hand, while the others are processed by machine. We participated in a tea ceremony and tasted three different types of tea that were all very good. TongJie and Ezekeil did really well and enjoyed learning about the tea and going to the tea ceremony. Ezekiel was really paying attention and asked several good questions to the guide when he asked if anyone had any questions. We bought some tea and let the boys each pick out a tea cup to bring home. TongJie chose a white porcelain set with a cup, saucer, and lid with blue dragons painted on it, and Ezekiel chose a plain light blue cup with a lid and a mesh strainer that fits inside the cup.
After having lunch together with our group, we had the whole afternoon and evening free. This hotel has a pool, so TongJie and I went swimming this afternoon. It is an outdoor pool and was right in the sun (we can see it from our room), so Ezekiel opted not to go because he knew it would be too bright and he and Jeff stayed in the room. It is so hot and humid here and the pool was very refreshing! When TongJie and I got to the pool though, a lady with video equipment was taking a video of a man swimming in the pool and there was nobody else in the pool. At first I thought we wouldn't be allowed to go in because all the workers started talking to each other and to the video lady when they saw us, and nobody there spoke English. One of the workers called someone from the front desk who spoke English and had me talk to her on the phone. She explained that "today is a special day" because they are making a promotional video for their hotel, and then asked if they had permission for us to be in the video. I said yes, and then they were happy to let TongJie and I go into the pool. The lady only recorded for a couple minutes and then left. I think they were looking for some footage showing it to be family friendly. Later, when TongJie and I were still swimming, one of the hotel workers came to thank us for participating in the video and she brought TongJie a stuffed pig as a gift. I guess we were just in the right place at the right time!
The boys played with their toys in our room for awhile, and then around dinnertime we met up with Sarah and walked to a smoothie place because me and Jeff didn't really feel like eating a lot for dinner so we got smoothies. Then we took TongJie and Ezekiel to KFC. They've been wanting to go to a McDonald's here in China, but we haven't found a McDonald's close to any of our hotels but there was a KFC. Sarah had already gone back to the hotel by then, so she wasn't wtih us and we couldn't figure out if they had kids' meals by looking at their menu, so in the end we ordered a couple of chicken sandwiches and fries for them to share and they were happy. We walked around the area close to our hotel and it was really neat. But it was getting late so we came back and got the boys to bed. This area is really beautiful. I wish we had more time to stay here a few more days. There are mountains all around that are really amazing, and everything is green and there are trees everywhere in the area of the city where we are.
Pictures: 1. The tea farm, 2. Walking on the streets of Guilin (outside of good old KFC!)
Wow, that info about the tea farm is so interesting! I didn't know any of that about tea leaves.
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