A 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.

You may already have heard of the ’China Now’ festival, especially those of you who are London-based, or within reach of the capital. It’s ‘the largest festival of Chinese culture ever to take place in the UK’ and runs for six months, with the aim of enlightening the British public on all aspects of Chinese life, including film, performance, cuisine, art, literature, music, design, science, technology, business, education, sport. And, it goes without saying, TEA. China, lest we forget, is the birthplace of tea. This massive cultural outreach is being endorsed by the cultural and political leaders of both countries - British PM Gordon Brown and Premiere of the People’s Republic of China Wen Jiabao have both spoken in support of the event – and serves as an exciting build-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China has the largest population in the world and by 2040, it has been much remarked, will have also have the largest economy on the world. So now would be a good time to get ahead of the game and get acquainted with a culture which will soon be impossible to ignore. Tippyleaf’s culture vultures highly recommend an acrobatic version of Swan’s Lake at the Royal Opera House, the China Film screenings and the Taste of China in Regent’s Park. The latter event will feature free freshly-prepared food. from world-famous chefs. And how about the Shaolin Monks.

But above all, don’t miss the Chinese Tea Culture Exhibition, which will explore China’s distinguished history of tea culture, and will shed light on the ins and outs of the tea-making process, and also ‘tea sets and utensils, tea art and customs, tea and health’. It is curated by the Chinese National Tea Museumin Hnagzhou and will tour the country giving lectures, tea-tastings, workshops, and generally dispensing tea wisdom of the ages.

And do make time to attend the Tea and Knowledge public lecture: it runs from 6 February to the 5 March, it’s at the London School of Economics and it should be fascinating, lively and informative.

You may recall the leading news item on 21 May 2007, when the Cutty Sark

at Greenwich was severely damaged after going up in flames, and the extraordinary sight of a London skyline, usually dominated by Canary Wharf, obscured by a nineteenth century tea clipper on fire.

The Cutty Sark, built in 1869, is the only surviving tea clipper. A ‘clipper’,which refers to the speed by which it passes through waves, is the name for a typical multiple-masted sailing ship used for trade routes between the UK and the East Indies. The legendary Cutty Sark carried tea from China to London, in an era of fiercely competitive races which rewarded the first ship to arrive back with tea from China with huge profits.

Her fame across the world survived the replacement of clippers with more efficient steamships, and survives even to this day – the ship attracts millions of visitors a year and is one of London’s key tourist attractions - and is testament to the importance of tea in nineteenth century commerce and culture.

The ship had been closed for conservation when it caught fire. Mercifully, the Cutty Sark Trust assured the public that more than half the ship had been removed elsewhere for preservation. It is estimated, however, that the cost of restoring the ship will reach somewhere in the region of £35 million.

The immense conservation project is well underway, and can be monitored on the official Cutty Sark website . There is also a fund set up should you wish to make a donation towards resurrecting this once indestructible symbol of the tea trade.

A couple of products of interest to those of us who’d rather skip the yawning (literally) chasm between waking up and having a cup of tea in hand. Like something from Tomorrow’s World in the 1970s (isn’t everything these days?), these automatic tea makers

combine the common or garden alarm clock with tea maker , thereby waking you up to the sound and smell of the cuppa. Rather than trudge downstairs to the chill of the kitchen, just prop up the pillow and, hey presto, reach over and take a sip. Personally, I’m too attached to my own tea making ritual to surrender the task to my alarm clock. The first cup of the day is sacred and, for me anyway, requires a small amount of preparation - moving to another room, sitting by the kitchen window, the anticipation of the kettle - a tiny tiny version of the Japanese ceremony, which bestows upon the cup a level of respect. Perhaps for an exquisitely lazy Sunday the tea maker might come into its own? The temptation to just stay in bed drinking tea all morning might prove too great for those of a weaker constitution. And isn’t the tea maker only the first step toward a totally automated morning routine, a la
Wallace and Gromit? You recall the scene from The Wrong Trousers, where an alarm tips Wallace’s bed and he slides down it directly into his breakfast chair, before a machine makes tea and a plodge of jam is fired at the toast. Do you really want to end up like this?