In the past dynasties, people not only formed a special way of tea-drinking, but also developed an art form called tea-drinking. This art form comprises of many aspects. The most noticeable ones are the making of tea, the way of brewing, the drinking utensils such as tea pot. The art of making tea is called “Cha dao”, which was soon accepted as one of the most important cultures that Japan learned from China. 

In Hangzhou, there is a tea museum, the only national museum of its kind, in which there are detailed description of the historic development of tea culture in China.

China, the Homeland of Tea

China is the homeland of tea. Of the three major beverages of the world– tea, coffee and cocoa– tea is consumed by the largest number of people in the world.

China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants dates back two thousand years. Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export. 

At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world’s total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The word for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character “cha.” The Russians call it “cha’i”, which sounds like “chaye” (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word “tea” sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. 

The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and is still on the increase.

Types of Chinese Tea

Chinese tea may be classified into five types of teas according to the different methods by which it is processed.

Green tea

Green tea is the variety which keeps the original colour of the tea leaves without fermentation during processing. This category consists mainly of Longjing tea of Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.

Black tea

Black tea, known as “red tea” (hong cha) in China, is the category which is fermented before baking; it is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.

Wulong tea

This represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas, being made after partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on China’s southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.

Compressed tea

This is the kind of tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for transport and storage and is mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the border areas of the country. As compressed tea is black in color in its commercial form, so it is also known in China as “black tea”. Most of the compressed tea is in the form of bricks; it is, therefore, generally called “brick tea”, though it is sometimes also in the form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Scented tea

This kind of tea is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of processing. The flowers commonly used for this purpose are jasmine and magnolia among others. Jasmine tea is a well-known favorite with the northerners of China and with a growing number of foreigners.

Advantages of Tea-Drinking

Tea has been one of the daily necessities in China since time immemorial. Countless numbers of people like to have their after meal tea.

In summer or warm climate, tea seems to dispel the heat and bring on instant cool together with a feeling of relaxation. For this reason, tea-houses abound in towns and market villages in South China and provide elderly retirees with the locales to meet and chat over a cup of tea.

Medically, the tea leaf contains a number of chemicals, of which 20-30% is tannic acid, known for its anti-inflammatory and germicidal properties. It also contains an alkaloid (5%, mainly caffeine), a stimulant for the nerve centre and the process of metabolism. Tea with the aromatics in it may help resolve meat and fat and thus promote digestion. It is, therefore, of special importance to people who live mainly on meat, like many of the ethnic minorities in China. A popular proverb among them says, “Rather go without salt for three days than without tea for a single day.”

Tea is also rich in various vitamins and, for smokers, it helps to discharge nicotine out of the system. After wining, strong tea may prove to be a sobering pick-me-up.

The above, however, does not go to say that the stronger the tea, the more advantages it will yield. Too much tannic acid will affect the secretion of the gastric juice, irritate the membrane of the stomach and cause indigestion or constipation. Strong tea taken just before bedtime will give rise to occasional insomnia. Constant drinking of over-strong tea may induce heart and blood-pressure disorders in some people, reduce the milk of a breast-feeding mother, and put a brown color on the teeth of young people. But it is not difficult to ward off these undesirable effects: just don’t make your tea too strong.

Tea Production

A new tea-plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this way, a plant may serve for about l00 years .

For the fertilization of tea gardens, Soya-bean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used, and seldom chemical fertilizers. When pests are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.

The season of tea-picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Longjing (Dragon Well) comes from, picking starts from the end of March and lasts through October, altogether 20-30 times from the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. With a longer interval, the quality of the tea will deteriorate.

A skilled woman picker can only gather 600 grams (a little over a pound) of green tea leaves in a day.

The new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. This work , which used to be done manually, has been largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon Well tea, however, still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour. The tea-cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature of about 25^oC or 74^oF. It takes four pounds of fresh leaves to produce one pound of parched tea.

The best Dragon Well tea is gathered several days before Qingming (Pure Brightness, 5th solar term) when new twigs have just begun to grow and carry “one leaf and a bud.” To make one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of finished tea, 60, 000 tender leaves have to be plucked. In the old days Dragon Well tea of this grade was meant solely for the imperial household; it was, therefore, known as “tribute tea”.

For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of tea various machines have been developed and built, turning out about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the workers from much of their drudgery.

Tea-Producing Areas

Tea is produced in vast areas of China from Hainan lsland down in the extreme south to Shandong Province in the north, from Tibet in the southwest to Taiwan across the Straits, totaling more than 20 provinces. These may be divided into four major areas:

The Jiangnan area

It lies south of the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, and is the most prolific of China’s tea-growing areas. Most of its output is the green variety; some black tea is also produced.

The Jiangbei area

This refers to a large area north of the same river, where the average temperature is 2-3 Centigrade degrees lower than in the Jiangnan area. Green tea is the principal variety turned out there, but Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, which are also parts of this area. produce compressed tea for supply to the minority areas in the Northwest.

The Southwest area

This embraces Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet, producing black, green as well as compressed teas. Pu’er tea of Yunnan Province enjoys a good sale in China and abroad.

The Lingnan area

This area , consisting of the southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and taiwan, produces Wulong tea, which is renowned both at home and abroad.

In Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties in China, people had the custom of presenting red eggs as a gift on weddings, birthday parties and child birth celebrations. At that time it prevailed even more in Beijing area with a considerable amount of egg consumption. Thus some people worked on the business of dyed red egg which is called the “color egg”. Later, traders painted patterns on these eggs such as flowers and birds, fishes and insects and facial make-up for better sales. After years of evolution, the egg craft gradually improves. Nowadays, people may hollow the egg and carve exquisite patterns on the shell surface which finally forms a precious art with high appreciation value – eggshell carving.

Eggshell carving has a variety of crafts. One kind is to carve such patterns as figures, landscapes, birds and flowers on dark egg shell using burin with the formed patterns similar to the sketch or outline drawing; the other kind is to carve on thick duck or ostrich eggs with the method of bas-relief or hollow-out. The process of removal of egg liquid, disinfection and so on needs to be done after completing the eggshell carving. Due to fragileness, it is very difficult to carve on avian eggshell; hence eggshell carving products are not common in market.

Basic steps: selecting egg – drilling holes – cleaning – setting calibration line – carving – another cleaning – decorating

1. Egg selection: The egg shell of middle-aged chicken (bird) shall be selected for its sound physiological condition; therefore the egg shell has even thickness with smooth and bright appearance.

Eggshell processing: Before carving, first we have to extract liquid inside egg shell. This is done first to poke a hole at one end of the egg with impact force of burin and other sharp tools, and then turn the burin tip left and right for reaming. During reaming, gentle force should be used to avoid cracking the egg shell. When the egg hole is expanded to a certain extent, use clamp to clean excess egg shell along the edge of hole. When the egg hole is large enough to insert syringe, it could stop. Then with the egg in one hand, use the syringe to extract the egg liquid through the egg hole with the other. Be sure to make the egg hole downward for better extraction. Both hands need to cooperate with gentle force. Shake of the syringe tip is not allowed to avoid cracking the egg shell. Be extremely careful when pumping the egg yolk for its viscous nature. Improper processing may easily lead to eggshell crack.

Finally, fling to clear the remaining liquid inside the egg to complete the extraction of egg liquid. After the extraction, there still will be residues on the inner egg shell which may be decayed after a long period of time; therefore the egg shell needs to be cleaned with water. Extract water with the syringe and gently inject into the egg. Plug the egg hole with thumb, shake the egg up and down for cleansing, then extract the mixture with the syringe and fling to clear the remaining water. The second shell cleaning is still needed for better cleansing. After the second cleaning, the water is relatively clean. In the end, formalin solution is needed for disinfection of the inner shell wall. When all these procedures finish, we may start our creation on the shell.

2. Setting calibration line: Place the egg on the “calibration line device”, draw the bisector and parallel line on the eggshell based on the design draft and then draw the detailed pattern according to the fixed position.

3. Carving: Use different tools. Eggshell carving tools are very simple mainly including the burin and shovel knife. Burin consists of oblique burin used for carving lines or details, small flat blade mainly used for carving details and corners, and large flat blade used for large size and rough carving; and shovel knife is used to level subface. Flexible combination of tools may be applied in actual use. Other tools include pencil, eraser, knife, whetstone, nicking tool, etc.

Carving forms: Eggshell carving boasts a great variety of forms and rich contents. You can carve characters, different flowers, various animals, and even figures on the shell if you are skilled enough. The carving techniques include positive carving, negative carving, line carving, etc.

4. Re-cleaning: In the cutting and carving process, stains are often produced on the eggshell surface, so re-cleaning is needed to cleanse the inner membrane of eggshell with steel brush.

5. Decoration: The processing method from inside to outside is adopted. The internal decoration should be performed first to avoid cracking during the complicated decoration process. The external decoration is subject to the pattern design to fix all kinds of gold thread, diamond, claw chain, beads, metal accessories, music bells, etc. according to the planned procedures. 6. As the shell itself is fragile which increases the production difficulties and reduces the success rate, each finished eggshell carving product is an exquisite artwork.