Tea Arts 茶藝

Last week we had teachers, Riccardo, and his classmates come and played the guqin and it was like stepping back thousand years or so,, back then music was held at a high social status. This string instrument can poduce a multitude of sounds. this is a writing from our friend Riccardo, --You know in ancient China, the appreciation of the incense, tea, fine art,music and literature all together formed an complete elite culture, but today it was cut into diffrent fields which looked totally with no relationship between them. It's really pitiful! I hope our guqin society can go to you tea society again and establish along termco-oparaton to restore the subtle elite culture in ancient China.We also have another guqin society in my school: I am the Director of it. We has some kind of concert called 雅集( we invite everyone who love the qin, but do not sell the tickets) around the end of every semester.Hope someday we can play for you all!Best,Riccardo Yeh,,,, Taipei DEC 2006 ---icetea

I was looking up orchids and found this great piece of info...I can't vouche for all the info, if is a nice bit of work. the following is from the site http://www.pineridgeorchids.com/ """Barbara and I have become hopelessly enthralled with Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese teas over the last 10 years or so. I will attempt to give you some background information and some of our experiences with enjoying cha in the following. All true teas as we know them (in contrast to flower and herbal infusions) are from the leaves of a Magnolia-related evergreen tree – Camellia sinensis. The tea trees are grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas, but the best leaves are from trees grown in higher elevations up to 9,000 feet (2,740 meters) where the leaves will grow more slowly and produce a richer flavor. The many different styles and tastes of tea – white, green, oolong, black, and the pu-ehrs – are the direct result of the regional variety of tea bush or tree, the local envir

http://www.aictea.it/Benvenuti.html AICTEA Associazione Italiana Cultura del T? ●一之源 茶者，南方之嘉木也，一尺二尺，乃至?十尺。其巴山?川有?人合抱者，伐而掇之，其?如瓜?，?如?子，花如白?薇，?如栟?，?如丁香，根如胡桃。其字或?草，或?木，或草木并。其名一曰茶，二曰?，三曰 ，四曰茗，五曰荈。其地：上者生?石，中者生?壤，下者生?土。凡?而不?，植而罕茂，法如种瓜，三?可采。野者上，?者次；?崖?林紫者上，?者次；?者上，牙者次；?卷上，?舒次。?山坡谷者不堪采掇，性凝?，?瘕疾。茶之?用，味至寒，??最宜精行?德之人，若?渴、凝?、?疼、目?、四支?、百?不舒，聊四五啜，与醍醐、甘露抗衡也。采不?，造不精，?以卉，莽?之成疾，茶?累也。亦?人?，上者生上党，中者生百?、新?，下者生高?。有生?州、易州、幽州、檀州者，???效，?非此者！?服? ，使六疾不瘳。知人??累，?茶累?矣。

Livio sent this to me but I did not post it in Sep. Opps!! sorry. from our friend Livio he wrote, ""While here I organized some activities. You can see and download the photos on: www.pbase.com/aictea0906 The seminars and the Wu-Wo training have been quite successfull. The participants were all professional tea vendors and amateurs coming from different places in Italy."" here is some info for his site... ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA CULTURA DEL TE' Italian Tea Culture Association Attivit? settembre 2006 - September 2006 Activities Associazione Italiana Cultura del T? Via Luigi Rizzo 1 - 36100 Vicenza www.aictea.it (sito in costruzione)

茶藝月刊

The Taipei Tea Culture Expo 台北茶文化博覽會 The Taipei Tea Culture Expo 台北茶文化博覽會222222 The Popularity of Taiwanese Tea Cities derive their particular charms from many things, be it historical sites, art and fashion, such as Rome, Paris, and New York, or for the ideas that have come out of them, such as the coffee culture of Seattle exported as the Starbucks brand, or even the capital of Brazil, Brasilia’s, push to make 60% of the city green, making it the only modern city to be listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Taipei is still quite young compared to other cities in the world, but it is blessed with a vibrant culture revolving around tea. Tea has been important to connoisseurs in Taipei since Lu Yu of the Tang dynasty: it is because of tea that collections of Sung dynasty tenmoku tea bowls can be seen in the houses of tea lovers around Taipei; it is because of tea that people have been infusing beverages in the shade of the Banyan trees in Taipei’s parks since the Ming dynasty; and i

1111Taiwan-Hualian-花蓮, 泡茶師聯會 "Tea Master Guild" 2222Taiwan-Hualian-花蓮, 泡茶師聯會 "Tea Master Guild"

Mandarin pronunciation and spelling  ==General guide, basic== This first section is simple but not exact Pinyin pronunciation table: Tones 1 high and level 2 rising from mid-pitch to the level of tone 1 3 falling and rising 4 falling sharply 5 neutral tone Vowels a similar to the 'ah' of 'hah' ang a Mandarin 'a' followed by 'ng' e similar to the 'er' of 'her' eng a Mandarin 'e' followed by 'ng' i similar to the 'ee' of 'bee' er a Mandarin 'e' with the tongue curled back o similar to 'or' en similar to the 'un' of 'fun' u similar to the 'u' of 'flute' ei similar to the 'ei' of 'weigh' ai similar to the 'ai' of 'aisle' ou similar to the 'ou' of 'dough' ao similar to the 'au' of 'sauerkraut' ye/ie similar to a short 'yeah' an similar to the 'an' of 'ban'