T-House

A few weeks ago I took my thirsty self to a local tea house. (Well, actually, Mingbai's Inge Jansen en Monique Groeneveld from China Inside had organized a tour.)

After a short introduction to China's obsession and long history with tea, we sampled a few cups ourselves. If you are having tea in a proper Chinese tea house, better not be in a rush! "To go" is clearly not an option, as the goal is to sit down, slow down, and chat or do some business.

Lovely ladies -- with years of training in teaology -- will come to your table to help prepare the tea, choose the appropriate cups, and poor out the goods in whichever way is appropriate for that particular kind of tea.

Green tea? Let the water cool down a bit. Oolong tea? Be sure to rinse the leaves one time.
Strawberry-kiwi tea? That's a weird Western invention! (The Chinese in fact refer to these other "teas" that don't use any real tea leaves as "flower water." )


 
The "Confucian Tea House" is just across from the Confucius Temple on 28-1 Guozijian Street.

  
Preparing for the tea.

  
Notice the difference between the various kinds of tea. Although I can't remember now which one is which, I do know all the leaves come from the same plant (the tea plant Camellia Sinensis) but have been processed differently. The tea on the left (barely visible) in the green chickenpox cup is called "bai cha" or "white tea," which means it is a very lightly processed tea with excellent health benefits. The other teas we tried were oolong team, green tea, and "I-forgot-its-name-of-course-tea."

  
Patience is a virtue!

 
Finally enjoying my cup of T!

In het Nederlands: Wat kan ik anders zeggen? Lieve ooms en tantes, vrienden, moeder, en overige familie: Als jullie in Beijing komen nodig ik jullie uit voor een heerlijk kopje thee in het Confucius theehuis! Koekje zelf meebrengen.

Blue Sky = Post All Your Pictures Online

Whenever it is a blue sky day in Beijing, all of the sudden it seems Facebook and other sites are flooded with  photos of people living here. We don't really want to show you the polluted skies - we want to show you how pretty it can be when you hike on the Great Wall in the Spring.

 

This is us (three of us) last Saturday, when we started our hike in the little village of Zhangdaokou (40° 24' 51" N, 116° 19' 39 E). Everyone has a camelback with water. :-). You can already see the Great Wall in the distance following the tops of the mountains.

 
In 10 minutes we were up on the Wall. You could go left or right... but we choose to go through the gate in the middle into the valley behind. 

 
A beautiful day.

On the other site of the valley we popped up in another little village.

 

It's a big sight to see two little blond waiguoren (foreigners) in your village. On the picture on the right, Simon walks into a very old walled village where the guards of the Great Wall used to live and sleep when not on duty.

 
Inside the walled village.

Little courtyards ("hofjes")

 
Red signs for good luck (a leftover of the Chinese New Year).

Simon finds a "fish print."

 
A great view on top of the wall that surrounds the village.

 
East meets west, old meets new.

 
From the walled village we go back into the valley and orchards to find a path to the Wall.

The landscape. You can see the Great Wall and one of the watch towers on the hill in the back.

It's Spring! Hurrah! Blue skies and pink flowers, what can be more pretty than this?

Maybe this?

We could look down at Xiangshui Lake where the Great Wall dips into a lake.

The tour guide.

 
 

 
Gege (big brother).

Anna & Wall.

 
Never a dull moment. On the way back the hike actually got pretty tricky. We followed the Wall all the way back to the begin point (close to the bridge and parking area on the right) but the Wall was crumbling down and it wasn't always very easy (or safe) to walk on top.

 
We're still on the trail though.

Oops.

Going back down through Zhangdaokou.

Back at the bridge.

Some firewood left from winter.

 
Spot the difference! (Zoek de 10 verschillen)

Well, these were all my blue sky pictures for this week! On Sunday the weather turned overcast again and since Monday a huge wind has been blowing dust in my eyes. Still, Spring is here, I saw it with my own eyes.

In het Nederlands: Afgelopen zaterdag was het supermooi weer en dan moet je er meteen op uit. We hebben heerlijk gewandeld bij een mooi stuk van de Chinese Muur vlakbij het dorpje Zhangdaokou. Tijdens de wandeling bezoeken we een oud ommuurd dorpje waar vroeger de wachters vertoefden als ze niet op de Muur aan het werk waren.

The door and Anna have been bad!

Friends,

I have been bad. Many weeks have gone by and my blog just kept showing you the same Chinese New Year's pictures. Mea culpa. I was too busy with life, work, kids and Chinese. Sorry. I have been bad.

Luckily I am not the only one who has been bad. Yesterday I went to the grocery store around the corner and the door had this sign on it:

So we both have been bad! I don't know if the door will be fixed any time soon, but I promise I'll be posting something on my blog in the next few days. Thank you for your patience!