A Perfect Ending

A few weekends ago we were invited out of the city by our friend Teri to visit Tea Mountain (about 2 and a half hours out of Guangzhou). It was a bit of a last minute decision to go and we really had no expectations for the weekend. What a pleasant surprise. It was the perfect way to finish up our time in China. We will tell the story in pictures.

Terri expertly cooking up the soup

Our first stop was about an hour out of Guangzhou where we met Pauline, a former roommate of Teri's to have some delicious chicken soup (the local specialty in the area). It has to be eaten within an hour of the chicken losing his/her life. So needless to say, it was very fresh! The flavor is primarily from wild roots and herbs found in the area. Delicious.

From left to right: me, Grace, Pauline's husband, Pauline, Teri and Wendy

From there, we drove another hour to "tea mountain" which as you can guess from the name is a place where people have grown tea and jasmine for generations. It's stunningly beautiful and we had the privilege of staying in a little village at the very top of the mountain with Pauline's parents. Sadly, the younger generations have all left the mountain for the cities, so many of the fields have been abandoned. Instead the people drive out from Guangzhou for a taste of the chicken soup and the mountain is now dotted with little chicken soup restaurants. Perhaps a name change might be in order...

terraces

village street

view from inside the house

kitchen with a wood stove

packing tea leaves

Hiking:

Dinner Under the Stars:
After a lovely hike through the mountains, we had another chicken soup feast with purple shelled vegetables (a type of greens) on the roof of a restaurant at the very top of the mountain. Another chicken gave up its life for this event. Our table looked like this.

Sunday Morning:

We got up bright and early to catch the end of the sunrise

and then set out to the jasmine fields to help with the morning picking. Jasmine farming is incredibly work intensive. The flowers and buds have to be picked every morning for the plants to keep producing, and this needs to be kept up for about 6 months. Add to this the bugs that have to be picked off by hand and well, yeah, it's an incredible amount of work. Seven of us picked for an hour and at the end of it all, when we arrived back at the house hot and tired, we found out that we had picked about a dollar's worth. The next time you purchase something with jasmine, take a moment or two to think of those that put in all the hard work to produce it and who are paid very little in return.

picking jasmine

early morning dew on a spider's web

walking back into the village

When we got back to the house we had a breakfast waiting of plain rice congee (rice porridge and plates of fried crepes rolled and stuffed with sugar. Yum, yum, yum.

Parting gifts of green tea and dried jasmine

As it was Sunday morning, we were invited to attend the local church in the city down the hill. And being the special guests we were (he he) we were invited to perform a couple songs for the church. This was not a big deal for Scott, but was somewhat anxiety inducing in my case. We ended up deciding on two songs, a Cantonese one that we attempted to learn (but miserably failed at) and an English one that everyone else picked up with an ease, making us embarrassed by our language inadequacies. Oh well - we did our best!

Song practice

leaving the mountain

early practice at the church

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and indeed, a perfect ending to our year in China. Thank you Teri for including us in this weekend!