You probably know that China is the origin of tea. Haungzhou is one of the famous areas for tea in China. So in Haugnzhou we have the China National Tea Museum, which we visited. Tea first started for medicinal purposes in China more than 2000 years ago, before the written history of China began. Then about 2000 years ago it started becoming a more mainstream drink. This museum traces the whole history of tea. As long as over 1000 years ago there were tea scholars and books written on tea... how to grow it, prepare the leaves, brew it drink it, etc. It is an important part of China's history and culture. More important to China than baseball is to America for example, in my opinion.
We had a self-directed-learning day on Friday, so some of us decided to visit the museum and learn about tea. Mission accomplished.
Exterior of main building
Almost everything was labelled in some kind of English, but this plaque needed some explanation from Prof Si.
Some of us found this explanation pretty interesting. Apparantly tea can cure most of your problems. The students were especially delighted with the penultimate paragraph. I guess the last sentence of the plaque pretty much sums it up !
