Sticky hand

Taiji may be a form of slow action exercise, but if you have mastered the skills in Taiji, you will develop a pair of sticky hands that can defeat your opponent.

Here is a video to demonstrate the sticky hand of Taiji.

 

 

Some folk songs to share:

http://youtu.be/lo3p4Qz0Eic 达阪城姑娘

http://youtu.be/UH7dLisSTYk敖包相会 

http://youtu.be/u_eqo4Jvdq0 在銀色的月光下

Intrroduction to puerh tea: Part 3

Here is the remaining video clip I recorded many years ago on puerh tea:

       Part 3:

   
       More info on Puerh:

 

Introduction to puerh tea Parts 1 and 2

Here are some recorded video clips on puerh tea in English (for sharing): This information is essential for puerh tea lovers.
                                         Part 1:

                                         Part 2:

Hope you enjoy the video.

Puerh blends well with food

If you are looking for a Chinese tea to drink, why not try puerh tea.

French like to have a glass of wine to go with their food. A typical Chinese would  prefer a cup of tea instead. If you are having a heavy meal (plenty of meat that kind of stuff), the best thing to do is drink plenty of puerh tea. If you do not wish to have wing to go with your food, you can have other alternative. With its mild but rich taste, puerh blends well with all types of food. It is not like other fragrant green tea that will rob you the rich taste of the food you are enjoying. Instead, the subtle taste of puern will compliment well with your food (the way wine does). It can also wash away oily things in your food and keep you healthy and slim. Not only that, long term drinking this tea will lower your cholesterol.

Green puerh takes too long to mature. You can opt for ripe puerh which can be consumed immediately. Of course, if you keep the tea for a year or so, the taste of puerh will improve significantly. Mature green puerh (over 20 years of age) is quite costly but ripe puerh (2 year of age) is comparatively cheaper and easy to drink.

Ripe puerh bricks of the 80s

Puerh cakes of the 70s

Puerh Toa cha (shape like a bowl)

Mushroom shaped puerh

Here I have a recorded video on the production of this marvellous tea. The narration is in English, so sit tight and enjoy this short film.

m

World's oldest tea tree

It had long been considered that the world's oldest tea tree originated in India.

However the villagers in Yunnan discovered fossils of tea leaves in their village. This prompted a group of researchers wanting to find the oldest tea trees. They set off to Yunnan which is known to have a lot of wild puerh trees, generally 500 to 800 year old. Some trees are even more than a thousand years old.

Fossils of tea leaves

Add caption

True enough, not far from where the villagers discovered the fossils of tea leaves, they found the oldest wild puerh tree. They also needed to prove that other old puerh trees were grown from this ancient wild puerh tree.

Experts examining the oldest tea tree

In 1993, experts all gathered around and examined the ancient puerh tree. They unanimously agreed that it was the oldest tea tree ever found on earth. Hence history was rewritten. The world's oldest tea tree actually originated in China, in Yunnan which is the habitat of puerh trees

Old puerh tree



This 1000 year old puerh tree is well protected

As the best puerh tea comes from these wild puerh trees which have long roots to receive nourishments from the soil deep underneath. These trees will produce big and hairy leaves which are essential for making good quality puerh tea.

The best of the puerh tea comes from the Panchang village which is called the Lao Panchang, the king of kings of the puerh tea. A newly made piece of Lao Panchang tea cakes can cost a few thousands RMB.

Lao Panchang: The king of kings

Another oldie for sharing:
       http://youtu.be/QFuzQDdUizM 偷偷摸摸

Nice flowers in high moon 月圓花好

A piece of excellent work of art, a stone carving from the highest quality of Qintian stone, Fongmenqin. The person who created this piece of work is the grand master Nee Tongfang. Nee also owns a stone carving museum where he displays all his works in stone carving. The theme for this work of at is Nice flowers in high moon It was also featured in a series of stamps issued by China in 1992 on stone carvings. The moon is carved out from this crystal clear Fongmenqin which is perfect with no defect. This must be a master-piece of art. If you ever visit Qintian, a small town in Zejiang, do visit the museum and admire this exquisite piece of carving.



Fongmenqin carving by Nietongfang

 

In an interview, Nee told reporter that when he bought the raw stone (a rather flat stone), the high quality Fongmenqin was sandwiched between rock. He spent one whole day painstakingly removed the impurity from the quality staff. This was a very delicate job as one mistake would cause irreparable damage. After he successfully removed the rock from the stone, he was amazed at the quality of this Qintian stone. It was yellowish green in colour and very crystal-like and without blemish. He realised that the best thing to carve out from this rare Fongmenqin was a moon due to the disc shape of the stone. The red portion of the stone he could carve some flowers and perhaps one or two birds (flowers attract birds). He then thought of a theme, nice flowers in high moon (月圓花好) where he would carve some flowers surrounding the moon with two birds in the midst of the flowers.

It took the master several months to complete the job. I every stage of the carving, he had to be extra careful not to damage it or else his whole effort would be wasted. When he had finished the carving, a world class master-piece of stone carving was produced.

All the visitors to his stone carving museum admire and praise him for his achievement in carving this one-of-a-kind creation. In 1992 when China postal authority visited his museum, the stone carving was selected as a theme for the national stamps depicting stone carvings.

There is a song on this theme, nice flower in high moon, 月圓花好.
If you want to hear this song, just click on the UOL.

         http://youtu.be/0ceqOky2s9s

Hottest thing in Puerh

Do you know what is the hottest thing in Puerh tea market these days?

Puerh discs displaying aged tea

It is the Puerh tea made from tea leaves picked from old Puerh tea. These old puerh tea trees have to be at least 100 years old. Generally the older the trees the better the puerh tea. If the trees are 500 to 700 years, the puerh tea is considered very good and very expensive. Some even boast that their puerh tea is made from tea leaves harvested  from 1000-year old trees.

Sign displaying tea from thousand year old trees

 

For such vintage puerh, there are many brands such as the Yiwu tea, Meng Ku, Mend Er, Bu Lung and many others. But all these teas cannot be compared to Lao Panchang, the king of Puerh.

Panchang versus Yiwu

Panchang is a tea producing district in Yunan. The trees in Panchang are generally very old, their age ranges from 500 to 800 years. These trees are huge with thick trunks and deep roots. These trees can absorb nutrients deep under the ground. As a result, the leaves are broad and hairy. These leaves make very strong puerh tea with a unique characteristic flavour. That is the reason why Panchang puerh is branded the king of puerh. Fresh unprocessed leaves can cost as much 750 RMB. After processing, the tea generally cost around 8000 to 12000 per kg.

A cup of freshly made panchang tea

Old puerh trees are indeed previous. They grow on mountains in this region where the climate and soil conditions suit the trees well. Some wild trees are a 1000 years old while others are more than 500 years old. The leaves are broad and thick due to good nourishment picked up by the deep roots.

 

 

In contrast, this new tea plantation where you see has only tea bushes. The leaves are small and will not produce puerh tea of great character.

When you enter the Panchang village, you will be surprise that many tea merchants gather there in search of the king of puerh. Everybody wants a slice of tea business from the panchang brand. Green tea from this region is like wine from the Bordeaux region of France. If it is panchang puerh, one can guarantee the strong character in this tea. If you don't see that many villagers in the town, don't be alarm as most of them will be out in the tea plantations plucking tea leaves.

Entrance to the Panchang village

Tea leaves being plucked from trees

At 750 RMB per kg for the fresh leaves they plucked from the trees, life has never been the same again for these villagers. When time was bad and the tea was not selling well, a granny remarked that she did not want to live that long. Now the tea market for Panchang puerh is so good that this granny said she did not want to die so early as life was really worth living. 

Modern houses in the village

Fresh leaves cost as much as 750 RMB/kg



Every household is building big house and posh and modern houses can be seen everywhere in the village. There is a sign of prosperity everywhere.

Some puerh trees are so precious that the owner fence them up and prohibit people from touching them. Like this 1000 year-old tree, a sign was put up to forbid illegal plucking of tea leaves from it.

Some even suggest to the owner of this puerh tree to charge tourist 100 RMB per session for taking a picture with this 1000 year-old tree. Now with that proposal, tea farmers can have other source of income which will make life even better for them. They remarked that the price of Panchang tea will even go higher in the future.

 

The farmers roast the freshly picked leaves in a big wok. This process is essential to kill off the chlorophyll in the leaves and dried them for further processing. These dried leaves can be sold to tea merchants as a semi-finished product and earned the farmers a decent profit.

 

Tea merchants examine the quality of the semi-finished tea leaves. They pay a few thousand RMB for the semi-processed tea. When the tea is finally packed in their factory, it will cost anything from 8000 to 12000 RMB. That's why old Panchang Puerh is called the kin of Puerh.

If you have not tried this king of puerh, just drop by a reputable merchant and get some real panchang tea. You will sure like its strong and heavy character, just like the Bordeaux wine from France.