We were continuing our tea-centric tour of Ya’an guided by our gracious hosts — my friend Alex, her husband James, and his old compadre Jiqian, a retired Ya’an city official. With these friends, we received first class treatment. In the history of tea, Ya’an is known for having been another main trade center along the […]

Shan Lin Xi. Apart from feeling like we needed to shower every two hours or so, Taiwan had been a completely surprising and magnificent adventure for us. On our first day, we visited Longshan temple in the heart of one of Taipei’s oldest districts. The locals there told us that during WW2 the area had […]

During our 2019 trip, we visited three main regions: northern Fujian, southern Yunnan, and central Sichuan. The last hurrah took place in Meng Ding Mountain, just north of the city of Ya’an, about 100 km southwest of Chengdu. This area is a legend in the tea world, known as the progenitor site of first known […]