This Precious Life

Booking Mao Mao’s tour to Wuzhen is very easy. All you have to do is walk up to your hostel receptionist, let her know know you’d like to go to the thousand-year-old village of Wuzhen, she will help you call Mao Mao’s tour company. The next day, Mao Mao’s bus will come and pick you up at your hostel early in the morning.

The entire package including entrance fee costs RMB120 per person. However, before we could get to Wuzhen, we were invited for a complimentary cup of tea at a tea factory along the way. According to a fellow traveller, the free cup of tea at the tea factory was made compulsory by the chinese government who owns the tea business.

Near the end of the highway, the bus detoured down a sidestreet and pulled to a stop. We stepped down the bus and was ushered by Mao Mao into a small dining room. We were served with glasses of “Hang Bai Ju” i.e. Hangzhou White Chrysanthemum Tea.

Here’s dad victoriously holding up his second glass. Refills are also complimentary.

As we sat down and slowly sipped the hot tea, two smart-looking chinese ladies briefed the entire group about the advantages of Hangzhou’s famous White Chrysanthemum Tea.

Ancient people believed that White Chrysanthemum, which was able to endure very cold weather, must have attracted “the soul of the sky and earth”.

A book from the time of the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC) said there used to be a village named Gangu in Central Chinas Henan Province where people drank from a nearby stream that contained the petals of chrysanthemums. The petals had fallen into the stream up in the mountains and all the villagers lived to a great age, some as long as 130 years.

White Chrysanthemum Tea was also used as a tribute to imperial court in late Ming early Qing period. It was named as Jinzhu Tribute Chrysanthemum. According to traditonal chinese medicine, White Chrysanthemum Tea helps to detoxicate, relieve rheumatic pains and is a natural green drink popular everywhere in China.

(These iinformation copied from various sites on the internet)

Wow, what a miracle healing drink. Let’s take a closer look at the cuppa.

Mmmm… heavenly.

Besides inviting us for the complimentary glass of tea, the chinese government further invited us to heal ourselves regularly by buying home a few packets of tea. I was impressed. This is truly a government that’s concerned about the health and well-being of its citizens and tourists.

After we escaped from left the dining room, we walked towards the bus, passing by a maze of stalls selling various items that the chinese government must have also felt would be beneficial to its citizens.

We did not buy any Hangzhou White Chrysanthemum Tea but knowing that we will be climbing Mount Huangshan in two days, we bought some rice wine to bring up the mountain and warm our bodies.

Back to the bus, Mao Mao saw us and was pleased thatnone of her 6 Malaysian tourists got themselves kidnapped by terrorists in the factory. The bus roared back to life and continued the journey to Wuzhen again.