Huang Bei Ling Antique Town

Boxing Boxing......I don't know why I keep thinking of "The Boxers" by Morrissey on the Boxing day. I like the Smiths and Morrissey very much, but it is nothing to do with Christmas time.

Today I visited a friend who open a Chinese tea shop in Huang Bei Ling Antique Town. The Antique Town is not far away from town, as the area cannot be reached by subway train, so it is a less famous treasure searching place. Behind the Arch there is a big area for flea market selling all kinds of so and so antique, jade, china, jewellery, paintings, books, even cameras and everything you can imagine.

We didn't spend much time on the market and went straight to my friends' store. It is a rather well know store around the place so quite a number of customers around while we stay there. My friend keep a lot of valuable antique tea cakes and we love to seek if there was a chance to have a taste. Of course we try some of those we cannot afford to pay for, but finally I did buy two tea bricks. The bricks were made in the 90s and they are raw bricks. It taste very sweet and seems like already aging for more then twenty years. They cost me not much (500 HKD) and refresh me some 80s memories.

What happen to the LAST CHRISTMAS?

What happen to the LAST CHRISTMAS?



:P

Chinese Tea Beauty wish you very Merry X'mas.

Hello, Chinese Tea Beauty wish you very Merry X'mas. What are you going to do tonight? Having a crazy party? Sleeping? No matter where u are, what u are doing, just promise to having fun.

I'm going to have a crazy party as well. A tea party. Woo. I'm not sure how many kinds of tea I will taste tonight, but sure it must be extremely amazing.


How can you spend the night without this song!!

China(Shenzhen) International Tea Expo, episode 4, compressed tea making

People are always wonder how tea cake or Tuocha (bowl shape 沱茶 ) compressed tea are made. There are demonstration of making tea in the Expo, catching many ppls attention. Normally they steam the raw tea leaf, then some of them use to make tea cake and some of them make bowl shape compressed tea.

On the tea cake making side, we can see there are four steamers (look like rice cooker), two big tea cake compress stone and several workers.

On the other side, two worker are working on bowl shape tea. Actually I'm not sure what kind of tea they are making, however they said it is a kind of organic tea and can be drink immediately. Many ppl are trying at once, but I do not have much interest. But it is nice to see a live demonstration of making compressed tea. The bowl shape tea weight over 300g and cost 320 dollars.

China(Shenzhen) International Tea Expo, episode 3, TAETEA Group

One of the focus of the tea Expo should be TAETEA Group which located in the middle of the exhibited area. Taetea, regarded as the major brand of Menghai Tea Industry Ltd. , is a kind of quality guarantee for most of the lovers, at least you will not be cheated when you buy tea in Taetea group.

Besides there are many tea trying desk area, ppl also attract by many of the special made tea cake. You can see the price of those product in the picture. Honestly, I am not really interested in those newly made tea, no exception form Taetea. New generation will be attract by the famous name, and the history, but so what? If you say are there any good stuff from Taetea? Yes, honour goes to the first production, dated around 1996 which cost around 3000 to 4000 HKD a piece of tea cake.

China(Shenzhen) International Tea Expo, episode 2, 千兩茶

Needless to say, the picture shows the most expensive tea in the Expo. It cost 68000000 Chinese dollars. The tea produced in 1953, packed as round column with 147cm long and weight around 36kg. In Chinese it called "千兩茶". Originally grown from Hunan Baishaxi, it is a kind of very high quality black tea. Tea dated from the '50 is so rare that some were carefully stored in the Palace Museum in China. I wish I had the chance to taste it.

Now Baishaxi still produce tea, but not as big as "千兩茶". They make it smaller and lighter such as 1/10 as before or even in brick shape so that more ppl can enjoy that. (continue...)

China(Shenzhen) International Tea Expo, episode 1

How can I resist to attend the Tea Expo in China, especially the hosting location was very close to Hong Kong this time. The Expo last 4 days and I went on the third day. You have to pay 2o dollars for entrance fee, which it was free last year. The whole Tea Expo is rather eclectic, whereas there are Tribal Dancing, Chinese painting auction, Chinese Emperor drama show and Tea making demonstration. Of course there are numbers of booths selling various kinds of Chinese tea and tea related products such as Jiangsu tea bottles, cups or even newly designed tea drinking desk.

As a Chinese tea lover, you can find Oolong tea, green tea, black tea, Tieguanyin, Taiwan high mountain tea...etc, and most favourable me Puerh tea, all over the expo. (continue...)