Chinese National Tea Museum
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008A companion post to the China Now announcement, which will be hosting a wonderful touring exhibition and range of activities hosted by the Chinese National Tea Museum. This museum really is an extraordinary resource, for those fortunate enough to be able to visit, and is a perfectly fitting monument for a culture to whom tea is even more fundamental than our own. Located in the Zhijiang province of Hangzhou, it first opened in 1991, and has seen rising attendance from tea fans from all over the world. Combining museum, botanical garden, and tea plantation, it really is a stunning sight to behold.

The museum is also a lively centre for academic research on tea – if ever you wanted to attend the University of Tea, this is it (they’ve yet to begin dispensing degrees but it’s only a matter of time - I feel I’ve long since earned my B.A. Hons in Tea Drinking, and it’s about time someone gave me a certificate to prove it) .
Especially interesting are the sections on the Tea Apparatus. Tea sets in China are traditionally as important as the tea itself, and there is an excess of aesthetic over function (in other words, Chinese tea sets are extremely beautiful, beyond what is required of them, and often resemble works of art in themselves).

The classic design of cup and saucer of course was invented in China, thousands of years ago, during the Tang dynasty. Teapot making takes off, big time, during the Ming dynasty, and pot-making becomes a distinguished and noble craft, with increasing attention paid to artistic design. The teapot becomes a beautiful thing, and both tin and clay pots become expensive items.
So do leave a window for the Chinese Tea Museum events at China Now. A rare chance to see ancient tea sets, as well as an opportunity to get savvy with Chines tea customs and history. Which will come in handy in a few years when the Chinese become Masters of the Universe.
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