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Published: December 4th 2011
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Saturday we had a trip to the tea museum. Miss Li thankfully pushed the time back to the afternoon. We had all gone out the night before for Carey’s birthday (again) for some dancing and were glad for the chance to sleep in. The museum wasn’t bad, but I’ve been to a lot of museums this semester, so it wasn’t the most exciting thing. What was exciting was the chance to taste four kinds of Chinese tea. We sat at a table with a lady that showed us how to prepare each kind of tea, then we got to have a tiny cupful of it. We got to try Longjing, a well-known green tea from Hangzhou; red tea (black tea); a flower tea, we had jasmine with osmanthus; and oolong tea (ginseng). The oolong tea was my favorite so I ended up buying some there. All the teas were delicious though, and it was really fascinating to see how Chinese prepared it—much more to it than throwing a tea bag into hot water. The lady first poured hot water over the tea kettle and the serving cups to warm them up. Then the tea leaves were put in. Chinese people drink
loose tea, not bagged. The flower tea was cool because it was a little ball that she put in the water which slowly opened into a flower. It was so pretty! A lot of people use that tea as a decoration. When she poured the red tea, she used a cup that had a little painting of a black dragon on it. When she poured in the hot tea, the dragon changed colors! It was so cool I bought one of those too. After the taste testing was over, we walked around outside for a while. It was absolutely beautiful there! I wanted to just sit on a bench and enjoy the peacefulness of the garden.
After the tea museum, we were headed to the Yun Qi bamboo path. There were seven of us plus Miss Li, and we all crammed into her little car to drive there. The bamboo path was cool—just a bunch of bamboo trees. The path led up a small hill to a tea house. We didn’t stay to eat, but the walk was nice. This is one thing I will miss about China: there a paths all over the place to take
a stroll on and enjoy the scenery. We don’t really have those at home. We have a lot of trails, but those aren’t as pretty, and they’re more like recreation trails with bikers and runners. The places that we walk here are so much more peaceful and beautiful.
Miss Li felt uncomfortable taking us all home in her car, so we took a bus back. Now this bamboo path was out of the city, so it was a long ride back, and it was very crowded. We had to stand the whole way, bumping into those standing around us with every turn, stop, and acceleration. And everyone was getting on, but no one was getting off. All the country people were headed into Hangzhou. We finally reached the other bus stop and got off. We had to wait for twenty minutes before the other bus came, and when it did, there was a big struggle to get on. This stop was the beginning of the line, so the bus was empty, but there were about thirty people wanting to get on this bus. As soon as the bus stopped, everyone rushed for the door, and what came
next was a lot of pushing and elbowing trying to get to the front and get a seat. Of course we were in there too, and I think I might have shoved past an older lady, but before you feel bad, she was giving just as much to get past me. The Chinese don’t really have the concept of lines, or at least they don’t follow it very well. People are always trying to push to the front, and it’s quite annoying. But we got on the bus and headed back. We were starving so Becky met Carey and I for dinner at Grandma’s Kitchen. I don’t know why we haven’t eaten there more often because it is the best food in Hangzhou.
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