Dec 21, 20246 min read

Wai's Tea House - China Trip

We left Atlanta early, 4AM, and headed to the airport. From Atlanta to Detroit to Shanghai - a total of 20 hours. I binge watched Tulsa King and slept. Then awoke refreshed and ready to start the adventure.

Shanghai, China

We landed in Shanghai and checked in to our hotel.

Our hotel was 5 minutes walk from the famous Bund and Nanjing road. Since I was on USA time, I got up at 5AM and headed over to the bridge to set up for a photo shoot.

Here's the photo I captured that morning with my trusty Canon EOS R6.

We spent the day shopping and hanging out. Found Tim Hortons Coffee Shop (a Canadian Culture thing) and an enormous fluffy lounge cat.

Getting ready to leave for Nanjing tomorrow.

Nanjing

We took the high speed train to Nanjing. It's 200 miles away and takes an hour at 190 mph and costs about $80. Oh, and that's for the private car.

In Nanjing we did more shopping and got to see our relatives.

Nanjing Confucius Temple's Qinhuai River At Night

We also grabbed some handmade buns at the Zhuang Yuan Lou's restaurant in our hotel.

then back to

Shanghai

In Shanhai we met up with Justin and Yasmeen. Right from the airport we went to Tianshan Tea City. Close to a thousand shops in a huge five story building. We estimate if we spent an hour in every shop and were there for 8 hours a day that it would take 3 months to visit all the shops. And there's no way to sample all their tea in 1 hour. The place was massive. Tea and teaware and more!

We met up with a few of our vendors and spent some time drinking tea!

Then a nighttime visit to the Bund and Nanjing road for shopping and food!

Tomorrow, off to Yellow Mountain.

Huangshan

Tea Farms

Huangshan is a mountain and foothills in the eastern part of China.

As soon as we arrived in Huangshan, we were off to visit one of the tea farms located in this mountainous region. We drove with Rei, our host and one of our suppliers, for about half an hour and then had to hike up a narrow path for another hour to reach his tea farm.

The fresh water springs flow past and feed the tea plants. Fresh air from the high mountain region, fresh, clear spring water, makes a pristine growing region for the tea plants.

Here's Rei's tea being picked and dried to make Golden Eyebrow and Huang Shan Mao Feng.

Huangshan Old Town

After hiking back down the mountain, we went to Huangshan Old Town.

The tea grown on the mountain is carried down to old town where we joined Rei (one of our suppliers) at his tea house. He used his extensive experience to share his freshest and highest grade teas for us. It's brewed with the same water that feeds the tea farms. We had some of the best, freshest tea available anywhere. It was a magical experience.

Huang Shan University

While there, Amy was invited to speak at Huang Shan University about tea, tea culture and living abroad.

The next day, we were off to go up to the top of Huang Shan's tallest mountain, a whopping mile and a half high.

Huang Shan Mountain

We took the gondola up, and after getting off the gondola there's a 6 hour hike of steep stairs. But every step provides an unparalleled view of the other mountain peaks.

Gondola and Hike.

During the hike, we stopped to have some fresh mountain Huang Shan Mao Feng Green tea.

and as I said, every step provided a miraculous view. Here are some of the photos I took.

The Sea of Clouds. When above the clouds, they look like the ocean.

We stayed in the hotel at the top of the mountain and the next day got up early to watch the sunrise and hike down the mountain to the gondola again.

Then a late night tea session after a long day of hiking.

And finally, sleep.

Goodbye Huang Shan Mountain! See you again soon.

YiWu

Then we took the train to YiWu. It's home to the world's largest supplier B2B marketplace. We had a chance to visit some of our teaware and accessories suppliers (no, we don't just buy off Alibaba) and also consider new products. All our teaware and accessories are physically inspected and tested by us to make sure you get high quality products that work well.

While in YiWu, we caught up with some old friends to - you guessed it - have some tea. Mark's father picks and make wild tree aged white tea. He's been doing it for his whole like and the tea is really good. We also had some 100 year mandarin orange rind which we added to some of the tea. A classic delicious and healthy combination.

After two days in YiWu, it was back to nature. We traveled to the famous tea region of Fuzhou.

Fuzhou

The home of Da Hong Pao and True Mountain teas.

We got there late - about 11 at night. And as soon as we arrived, what did we go do? Sleep, you might say? Nope. Drink tea!

We are now in the mountain region famous for aged white teas, famous oolongs like Big Red Robe and Iron Arhat and red teas like Golden Eyebrow.

While there we again got to sample some of the best tea on the planet. These fresh, high grade teas, are no longer just about flavor. They provide natural nourishment and energy to the body. They really are viewed as delicious medicine and after a week of drinking good tea we could really feel the difference. We all were experiencing more energy and an overall feeling of wellbeing.

We woke up and had breakfast. We were in a rural tea town. Breakfast was simple, congee and buns. We ate outside in the fresh mountain air. Wow.

Then over to Rei's tea other house. This tea house is where the tea from his farm is manufactured, packaged and sold all over the world. We sampled some of his aged white teas and big red robe, teas.

After that, we drove out to his tea farm and visited where he dries and processes the tea.

After visiting Rei's farms, we drove to a very very old and rural town where we visited the ancient WuYi Mountain Da Fu Di Zhou Tea Company and farms. Ancient teas and - get this - Da Hong Pao tea pressed into a cake. What marvels will they think of next?

Then back to Rei's tea house to sample more teas. Justin got to serve today. Dual kettles! He hit the big time! Dual 240 volt kettles - unlimited hot water! Life doesn't get much better.

Next Up: We travel to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

While in Hong Kong we shopped and enjoyed the sights. This part of the trip was for sifu Wayne to visit his teacher and other grandmasters of the wing chun kung fu system.

Patriarch Ip Man's Grave

First up was our visit to Patriarch Ip Man's final resting place to pay our respects. He taught my teacher Sunny Tang and grandteacher Moy Yat in Hong Kong in the 60s.

Then back to Hong Kong for shopping and dinner.

Grandmasters of Ip Man Ving Tsun

We had giant banquet dinner with 400 others who gathered to celebrate the grandmasters. I was honored to be invited to sit at the head table with the grandmasters and some helpers, and to be seated while others dropped by for photos with us.

Grandmaster Sunny Tang (Dunn Wah), Grandmaster Sam Lau, and Grandmaster Jeffrey Chan. These grandmasters were all front and center during the famous Hong Kong rooftop fight era, when they fought alongside other greats like Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung and Grandmaster William Cheung.

After dinner, we went up to Grandmaster Sam Lau's school to talk about what ving tsun grandmasters talk about. A moment for the history books; so much knowledge and experience in that room.

After Hong Kong, we went back onto the mainland to visit Patriarch Ip Man's home town, Foshan. Home of another famous martial arts legend, Grandmaster Wong Fei Hong.