Our last stop of the day of touring was at a Tea House....a very well appointed place, with separate rooms where guests are introduced to four variety of teas. Usually this consists of oolong (or wu-long), Jasmine, Pu-erh Tea, and one I can't remember that was mixed with rose blossoms.
I think it might have been some kind of Chinese Health tea, but it's flavour was either enhanced or masked by the rose buds. http://www.teashopchina.com/We were shown how to properly hold a tea cup, which is different for men and women, and how to properly brew the tea. Jasmine tea is washed first before steeping. Men hold their hand firmly around the bottom of the teacup, while women hold it delicately with thumb and two forefingers and the pinky sticking out.
This was a factory run operation, and once again we were guaranteed quality, but the price seemed a little high to me, so I declined the purchase of any. Our guide in the tea house became too pushy too, so none of us walked out with much.
I had particularly wanted to try some Chrysanthemum tea, as I 'd seen it on menus, but I kept being put off, and she said she would show me some later (when we were done her stock 'show and tell.") This never happened of course.
http://chineseteas101.com/
*****
Once again this, my second day of touring, took us to a silk factory. I took only a few close-up shots to augment the ones I'd taken before. The explanation was much more clear and I have to say that I was sorely tempted to buy a silk comforter, though of course, I don't have my own
bed or a home any more. Once again this was a factory run place, with standard prices and guaranteed quality.Did you know that there are 1,500 metres of silk in one cacoon and that it takes 3000 cacoons to make a man's shirt?
When making quilts, they use the double cacoons, washing and stretching them. They layer them 10 deep first and do this 7 times, so that there are 70 layers of silk, which actually equals 1 layer of a quilt. For a summer quilt they use 100 of these layers, and ofr a winter quilt they use 250 layers.
