A sip of Chinese tea and a number for love

A petite Chinese girl with porcelain skin and baby doll hair shows us into a tiny tea room. The wallpaper has a clay teapot design in shades of ochre, taupe and rusty browns. We sit down at a small table laid with tea sets and glass jars filled with tea leaves and flowers.

On the wall to my right hangs a scroll with Chinese calligraphy in honour of tea culture. On my right sits Yan Dan and Chen Zhi Hua, bright eyed and super keen to share their knowledge of tea and the history of China.

"This place in called 'The Great Xing Tea House' and it originates from the Xing dynasty," says Yan Dan and then looks to the tea master in front of us for more guidance.

Or perhaps I should rather say 'tea mistress'. She is so pretty in that red silk dress. When she starts to speak my eyes glaze over. I feel like I have been struck by magic. You see, I have this fantasy of being a pretty Chinese girl with silky black hair. One who pours tea into delicate China cups and serve them to men skilled in martial arts and sword fighting.

What's more, I wish I could speak all the languages in the world. The structure of a language can say so much about the mindset of the people. Each language presents different ways of saying things and thus broadens the possibilities of what can be expressed. Simply listening to a foreign language pleases me. Especially in a traditional setting such as this.

The fact that Yan Dan enthusiastically translates every word makes me feel eternally grateful. She explains how ingrained tea is in the local culture. She draws the symbols for tea and tasting and demonstrates how the symbol for tasting is made up of three mouths. Therefore a tasting has to be done in three sips only.

First we taste a Ginseng Oolong Tea which the tea mistress pours from one procelain cup to another. The empty cup we swirl around our eyes because "it's good for seeing".

The next tasting is quite a show. Our tea mistress pours the Jasmine Green Tea from high up into tiny cups.

"This tea is also called 'The Eye of the Phoenix' because the tea leaves and flowers are rolled into little balls that look like eyes and the Empress of the Xing dynasty favoured this tea".

We taste a couple more teas including fruit and flower teas but the Jasmine Green Tea remains my favourite.

"Strong tea such as Oolong and Dark Green Tea must be brewed in clay pots while fruit and flower teas should be prepared in glass teapots or even wine glasses in order to appreciate its visual beauty," I learn, "Porcelain pots are for milder teas."

By the time Chen Zhi Hua calls me a taxi I feel like I am stepping out of a dream and I am sad to say goodbye to these generous hosts. Not only did they give me a perfect memory but they also left me with a lucky number: 11, one and one, "for love".

Xie-xie, 'thank you'.

Visiting the ‘Paris of the Orient’

Today Shanghai is once again worthy of its 1930’s title, ‘Paris of the Orient’. At night the city lights transform the Bund area into a magical and colourful world, reflected in the Huangpu River which glides through the city.

Although it has become a cosmopolitan economic centre, Shanghai also has much to offer in terms of tradition and the celebration of art. In fact, the Shanghai Museum has won many awards and displays a proud selection of some of China’s most important cultural relics.

My own personal favourite is the hall dedicated to Chinese paintings. The whimsical brushstrokes and calligraphy tell enchanting stories of a spiritual life that honours beauty and is lived close to nature. As with Chinese calligraphy, these paintings are so delicate and it represents an era where people still had time to express their highest abilities.

Other halls exhibit Chinese ceramics, bronze and other sculptures, jade, furniture, currencies, ethnic arts and crafts as well as ancient Chinese seals. Although these distinctive seals were first used as a validation of authority it eventually became widely used as a personal signature and was fused with the art of calligraphy and painting.

What is astonishing is the depth of history that is contained inside this modern museum. It spans 5000 years worth of history from the Neolithic Age through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, while I even spotted some pottery shards from 6800 BC.

The museum shop is supposedly a great place to shop for souvenirs but as I am heading for the Yu Yuan garden and market I end up buying only with my eyes. Outside the door two young Chinese women ask me to take pictures of them.

“We’re visiting Shanghai from the north for a friend’s wedding,” says Yan Dan, “If you don’t mind, you can join us for a tea ceremony. We would like to practise our English and it would be nice for you to see this tea celebration.”

Considering my insatiable passion for Oriental tea, I cannot believe my luck. I look into Yan Dan’s eyes for a few seconds to try and gage if I can trust this stranger. Why do I always have this issue with trust?

Then I think of my mom’s words: “Who risks nothing has nothing and is nothing,” and promptly accept their invitation.

Finding peace in Colombo

“Sri Lanka has about 60% Buddhists and the rest is made up of other religions,” says our taxi driver/ tour guide, “but we all live together in peace”.

I’m in Colombo with some colleagues and taking the time to see the city. The army is visible almost everywhere and to me it looks more like war than peace.

“It’s only the Tamils that cause the problems here in Sri Lanka and only in the north.”

The question is should I feel safe that there are so many soldiers with big guns around or does it mean that the city is indeed treacherous.

Well, I guess the world is becoming a more dangerous place every day no matter where I go. Our driver recommends that our sightseeing includes all the historical religious buildings in the city: the Hindu temple, the Catholic Church and the Buddhist temple.

The Hindu temple is closed when we get there so we proceed to the Catholic Church where we watch people crawling underneath a type of shrine containing a statue of Mother Mary. It is interesting to note how religious rituals vary from country to country.

We pass a beautiful mosque on the way to the Buddhist temple but our driver says that it has no historical value and thus we should only take note of the aesthetics of this building as part of today’s multi-religion tour.

Inside the Buddhist temple we discover an interesting mix of Chinese, Thai and Taiwanese styles. There is a giant Bodhi tree in the middle of the place underneath which people meditate hoping to reach Nirvana in the same way that Buddha did. In the corner an elephant with really long teeth is enjoying a bite of fresh leaves.

“The elephant will be used in a celebration this week. One of the Buddha statues from the temple will be tied to his back.”

When we are ready to leave one of our colleagues is missing. We find her chatting to a monk in an orange robe. The monk invites all of us into a room filled with porcelain and all kinds of Buddha statues, including the smallest Buddha in the world.

He proceeds to tie multicoloured threads around our wrists and offers us blessings. I realise that there is no need to be afraid of war if my soul is free. This world is not what it seems to be.