The Tea ‘princess’ of Beijing

She is queen of the art of tea making and turns it into a very special event. Her work is of perfect quality, and you almost think you are in prayer, or that she is praying as she works. She brings a new energy and attitude to the preparation and the drinking of tea. When […]

She is queen of the art of tea making and turns it into a very special event. Her work is of perfect quality, and you almost think you are in prayer, or that she is praying as she works. She brings a new energy and attitude to the preparation and the drinking of tea. When she holds the tea cup, it is an act of reverence. When you raise the cup to your lips, she is happy. The room in which she sits is also clean and the wooden seats on which we sit, glow. I recall seeing a nice rug there as well. Works of art decorate the room, and you have the impression that you are in a very special place. There should be an atmosphere of greatness or celebration wherever tea is consumed or where a meal is being enjoyed, Tea City seems to tell us that afternoon when we visit. The Lady sits on a small stool which has a cushion on it, and wears a black dress. Sometimes, she smiles broadly, but generally she carries out her duties with something of a half smile across her face. Once in a while she stands up, maybe to hand over a cup of tea to a member of our team, and these cups used by the Chinese are usually very small, much unlike the ones we use in Nigeria when we drink tea. We seem to like our things in large size or quantity. There is a kettle nearby which she uses to boil water, and then there are a series of small tea cups all lined up along the small table before her. A bowl of tea sits nearby. Then there is a small pot on the table. There she puts the tea leaves, and   pours   hot water on them and waits a bit, until the tea brews and is ready to be served. Then she pours tea into each cup and gives one to each of us in turn. From time to time she refills our cups. She introduces new teas to us, as we finish each cup. There are six types of tea, namely green, black, blue, white, yellow and dark teas. There is no milk or sugar provided for tea at Tea City. This is how tea is enjoyed here, we are told. All her movements bear marks of inner dignity and she does not speak, except she needs to. She always returns to the same corner of her seat if she has to leave it, and none of her movements are awkward or out of place. We may call her the Tea Princess of Beijing.  We are at the popular Tea city in Beijing, the Chinese capital. Tea city is a popular four storey building with three storeys’ reserved for tea. As soon as we enter the building the powerful aroma of tea hit us. It can be said that all the tribes of tea can be found in Tea City. Elevators convey the visitor from one floor to the next one. It seems that on each of the floors reserved for tea is a place where the visitor can go to have some cups of tea, for a fee of course. The place set aside for this purpose has the best wooden furniture available, and those who attend to you, I begin to think, embody some of the finest qualities of the Chinese people. We all saw this. The surrounding area within Tea City specializes in anything associated with Tea, including teacups, tea spoons and tables, and, of course, many different types of tea.  China is the home of Tea and the leaf is planted in the mountains of the country, and has a history going back some 4,000 years or more .Tea is also one of the important contributions of China to the world.

According to Wikipedia, tea was first discovered by the Chinese Emperor and inventor Shennong in 2737BCE. Thus Cha (Tea) came into being. Lang and Liangzhi, authors of Insights  into Chinese Culture write ‘Just as many important events took place in cafes in the west, it is in the tea houses that many important things happened in China. Teahouses have always been an important setting in the life of the Chinese people’.

He also went further to comment on how people responded to the drink when it was first introduced in Europe. His words ‘When tea was first introduced to Europe, it  was warmly accepted and even acclaimed as a ‘blessing from God’, and  people went  so far as to congratulate themselves on being alive at such a time when tea  leaves were found. In China, love for tea is just as, if not more, ardent’.

Here, tea is thought to cure a variety of diseases. This is because it has always been held that bitter teas contain elements which are helpful to the body. Lang shows that Tea prefers to grow in clean places. He writes ‘The cleaner a place, the better the quality of the tea it nurtures. Fine Teas usually grow on high mountains, enveloped in clouds and mists and in a clear environment’. In the international Tea market, China’s green tea accounts for more than 70% of the total amount of the international Tea trade. The country’s Tea Ware also has a long history. These wares include the world famous Jingdezhen porcelain and Yixing purple sand pottery. The Chinese attitude to Tea also reflects the people’s attitude towards nature as well, which is a lofty one. The two cannot be divorced from each other. After    drinking several cups of green tea and several other flavours, it was time to leave, remembering to give a slight bow to the princess while making my exit.