"Not for all the tea in China!"

Like I've said before, I love the markets here. It's just amazing to me that you can be in a place where everyone is seemingly selling the same thing, yet each little store seems to be a thriving business! I guess I need to check out the Flower Market and others in NYC once I get back! Today my co-worker, Sofia, took me to the tea markets of Guangzhou. You wouldn't believe how much tea there was! There were places dedicated to black teas, exclusively... green teas, exclusively.... flower teas... tea pots.... amazing. It felt a bit sketchy, but I bought a kilo of green tea today! 

With Sofia's help, I bought the tea from the man above who ran one of the many many tea stores on the block. You can taste any of the teas, so of course we took advantage of that. He sat us down on stools next to the little table above and then began heating the water. He set out the cups, poured hot water in each to warm them up, dumped the water out onto the table (it has a grill-like cover, so the tea pours into the table), put tea leaves in the pot and poured water over it, and dumped it out, added more water to the tea leaves.... and voila! We finally we had our sample. Such an elaborate process, but well, well worth it.

Above: Sofia enjoys the green tea sample. 

Above: More tea... I am thinking this could be black tea?

Above: Bricks of black tea... the packaging is so unique. You crack off little pieces at a time when you are ready to drink it. I really wanted to buy one of these, but I just pictured it cracking and spilling into my luggage! :)

Today I realized something: as much as people hurry around here, they really take their time with important things... the tea, for example. It took him a few minutes to prepare and pour the tea just for our sample. Clearly, he had such pride in his work. Not only that, Sofia took time out of her busy day to show me the market today. As I rushed around saying "just one more shop" or "I'm going to just look in here quickly..." etc, she would tell me not to worry - don't hurry! She wanted me to get the full experience and you could tell how important it was to her. She was totally focused on it - asking the shopkeepers questions, helping me find just the right green tea, a better photo opp, or a cuter tea pot.... I am so distracted sometimes in NY doing ten things at once. Today really made me reflect on that and appreciate the opposite in the people I have met in my time here.

Earlier today, I joined a meeting with some of my clients from the States who are here for a week or so. It was great to start getting my head around some of the projects I will re-inherit on my return to New York next week. They also invited me out to dinner tonight with their P&G China co-workers. We ate at a very traditional Chinese restaurant. I am not sure if the meal was dim sum or not... it had the "lazy Susan" in the center with all the dishes on it, but since it was dinner, I wasn't sure. I should have asked! It was a lively dinner full of more unusual food and great conversation. 

Above: This lobster was alive when we got to our private room in the restaurant. A few minutes later, he showed up like this. As much as I love lobster, I didn't have any. All the lobster was still in the shell and I couldn't for my life figure out how to eat this with chopsticks!

Above: The fish pokes his head out of the dish....

Above is a picture of the very first dish that was on the table when we sat down. To me it looked like just the shells of shrimp. Eventually, I asked my co-worker and was told that it was, in fact, whole shrimp. And as I've heard quite a few times here, he said, "You can try it". They also say, "You can eat it." These phrases both seem to mean try it. But, as they say, "Not for all the tea in China...." Eating the shells just seemed a bit far to go tonight just as I'm preparing to head home! I am not taking any chances ;)

Below is a picture of Jim, one of the P&G team members from Cincinnati. His face reflects what happens when you take the offer of "You can try it." He  tried a noodle dish that some of the Chinese were warning him NOT to try..... a brave, brave man.

Lastly, they presented all the Americans at dinner with tokens of their appreciation, even me, a last minute addition to their meal. The gift was two frames reflecting a traditional Chinese male costume and the other reflecting a traditional Chinese female costume. Such an incredibly sweet gesture and an extremely thoughtful way to end a very fun night!

* PS apologies these are all yellow-ish pictures! The walls were yellow, the lights were florescent, so it just didn't come out right! A flash would have been a lot better but a bit more intrusive to dinner.