A lonely scene early morning in Shenzhen. Me, a tea set not yet in use, a bowl of congee not yet on the table, tea water I will not be drinking, an ash tray I will not be using.
Tea water, like beer water, are terms we use to call restaurant free tea and China made beer respectively. Stuff that claims to be something but is just basically potable drinking water. Shenzhen is not a real city either. It was a created border city to HK. I was in a floating world of nothing real today.
Finally negotiated a batch of ‘96 loose Pu-erh for our 15 year Pu-erh re-stocking! Well, it’s a true 17 year Pu-erh, which in tea years is like a 60 year old human? Most of the market place Puerhs are ripen to drink at 1 year old…
People often ask me how I do it. I live overseas, but most growers and producers treat me like a local, which helps relationship building and getting the best stuff. Regular tea buyers don’t have much status since all you have is money and negotiation skills. Government officials and the local corporate sharks have a much more important priority. The trick for me is to blend in properly. How to do…
Eating poisonous foods for dinner outdoors in smog choked dusk in Guangzhou. Moms of the world worry when their kids go to China and have to eat local food. Yet I don’t see horns bulging out of anyone or extra eyes growing out of foreheads? Preferable to invisible cancer cells. Good thing people drink tea nonstop or the 1.3 billion people in this country might all be dead or at least mutated… My day of restocking some teaware at the tea mecca was uneventful, which means, success. Sat and drank tea with a tiny antique dealer in the smallest shop (about the size of a single bed) featuring the tiniest items. Got a pair of rare seal emblem cups and intact pair of Gaiwan. Score. Found some shallow bowled glass Gaiwan perfect for steeping Lu Shan Clouds a and Mist. Another score. Got a collection of sweet tiny Yixing teapots of smooth brocade clay. Double score. Ore’s running out, any finds are good. Found a mad artist who talked like a fast moving unstoppable river, all about the various historical glazes of China. What a guy, what a shop; got some expensive dragon celadon gaiwans. I think probably only me and the river running mouth understands their value… When I got up in the morning today, I prepared myself for functioning as a half-wit. Half of my brain cells have choked from a stuffy nose from a bad cold, the other half choked from lack of oxygen in Guangzhou. Not too bad for being completely dysfunctional….
Hong Kong, more coverage on the blog this time than other times. My last retreat will soon be gone. Where will I live in the future, I ponder, once Hong Kong falls ? I have always lived in the U.S. with the comfort that I can move back to HK some day, the only truly free place on earth for a Chinese person. Free from suppression, oppression, or ethnic discrimination. As the U.S. wastes itself away on guns, military, and Right Wing Politics, I thought of moving everyday. But that option will no longer be available.
Mr. Yan and I spent the morning at dimsum complaining about how my batch of Phoenix oolong was over roasted. A respected elder specializing in Tieguanyin, Mr. Yan is also a patron to many tea makers and their sometimes sloppy handiwork. That’s when he responds with yelling in Fukienese; I think cussing in that dialect and tea goes hand in hand. How many thousand batches of teas have turned out badly in the last thousand years?
At the Taoist temple, an icon of old Hong Kong, statutes of all the zodiac gods line the walkway. Incense offerings and prayers later, I relax with some German beer in front of the ocean. It’s Octoberfest, yes, even in Hong Kong.
A little old, a little new, a little Chinese, a little of all the world… That’s HK. Now, if only there wasn’t China.
In all my years as a sort of ‘konger’, there has never been much political unrest. It’s not a very political place. People were content to shop and watch soccer. But then, today, massive protests run amuck on the streets, people turning out to protest the government of not issuing a license to a new TV station. Why? Censorship from the Central Communist government? Someone didn’t pay a bribe to…