Tea Market

Today, our cultural activity was in tea market. We took a public bus because it was close to the university. It was a collection of large buildings and individual tea shops inside. Many had samples of tea outside their shop. Some were the leaves, some were in decorative bags, and others seemed edible, like candy. Our tea lady was very nice and answered all our questions. We sampled a sundry of different types such as green tea, black tea, oolong tea, fruit tea, and so on.

My favorite was the black tea Jin Jun Mei and the peach/blueberry fruit tea. It was sweet but had no sugar. I bought these as gifts for my family. Afterwards, we could walk around the shops and buy teas. I really enjoy drinking tea in my American home so this experience was very refreshing and fun. While modern teas seem to be picking up hype, I think I'll always return to the traditional.

Kathryn S. Chi-Ferson, Lamar High School, Texas