China Trip Part 8: The Dragonwell Tea Ploy and the Fuzi Miao Night Market

In my previous posts, I forgot to add in some pictures. I'll add them in this post. Mostly they are related to the hotels I stayed at. I want to leave my readers with some hotel recommendations if they ever decide to travel to the same places I did. Mr. H, our local guide for Hangzhou, promised us that today we would be experiencing authentic Dragonwell tea. Those of you familiar with the tea know that it's a high quality green tea that is expensive to procure. Why not bump up the prices for these tourists?? What was misleading about the Dragonwell tea we were about to experience was that most of us thought we were going to get West Lake Dragonwell tea which is utterly famous and nearly impossible to get your hands on the real thing.  You may ask, if money is the issue why not be willing to pay more money for it? We thought the same thing actually and after the trip we visited various tea shops in Guangzhou. Nevermind West Lake Dragonwell tea, you couldn't see any sort of Dragonwell tea of inferior or superior grade. We did however saw that a duty-free shop at the Hongqiao airport carried Dragonwell tea. One small tea shop claimed that they had authentic Dragonwell tea, but simply judging by the color, it didn't look favorable.

One thing to keep in mind about being a tourist is that there are marketing ploys everywhere. This time we experienced first hand how scary it can be. Merchants always use psychological tricks to tempt and pressure you to buy products and we saw that many of us in the tour group couldn't withhold the pressure. So in the morning, we were ushered into a room at place where they sold Dragonwell tea. For four long hours, they gave a talk about the tea and plenty of time to buy the tea. They explicitly said that there will be no bargaining and that this is a government regulated price. It was a waste of my time, because I was bored to tears and they were selling a health supplement that I personally believe is utterly useless.

"Come have some tea with me."

There were two varieties of Dragonwell you could purchase for 1 Chinese pound which is approximately 500 grams. In other places, it may be referred to as one catty and is the typical unit of measurement we use here in Asia. One was prices at 700RMB while the other of finer quality was priced at 1200RMB. My mom and I were wide eyed. If there is anything to brag about, you can brag that in Guangzhou you can get fine tea at a way lesser price at 500 grams. Even if Dragonwell tea is restricted to only Hangzhou, the price is too demanding for the local people even. We thought long and hard (well I kept silent for the most part). We came all the way from the United States and to walk away with absolutely nothing felt like a total waste. At the same time it really hurt our wallets. Was it worth it? So in the end we went for the 700RMB one. There were a few people that bought several packages of the 1200RMB ones. We felt cheated because we were given a tourist price. We also felt deceived because when we examined our tea at home, it looked different that the ones we sampled.

However, there were a lot of things worth learning. We did indeed get authentic Dragonwell tea and it wasn't shoddy quality. What it made a slightly inferior grade was that there were some poor leaves mixed in. The color of the leaves should be somewhat of a light green. It should not be of a yellowish tint because that means it was a bad leaf. It should not be a dark green because that means it has been sitting too long in storage (old inventory). At home we tasted our tea. It was indeed easy to drink, very smooth and light. It doesn't have a sharp green taste like green teas can have. When the people poured tea for us, they did a curious motion with the teapot. They shook it three times and the tea would exit the spout in three leaps. This is an ancient gesture of bowing three times, but using a teapot as opposed to physically showing respect to a guest. So was the 700 RMB worth it after all?

Our time in Hangzhou was over. We were on a 4 hour bus ride to our next destination, Nanjing. It was a very hot afternoon. The blazing sun was torching my skin. We arrived at the Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum 中山陵. Looking at it from below, it is a very majestic tomb. Though it serves as a memorial, it is also a AAAAA scenic area. To get up to the actual place, you need to take the trolley and then you're free to walk wherever you want. We were given very little time as usual so we decided to walk the entire 392 steps. I wore my jacket over my head like a veil to block out sunlight. Sweaty and tired, we made it to the top in less than ten minutes. Ice cream break! I bought a pack of poker cards for 10 RMB as a momento. The mausoleum inside is extremely cool like an air conditioned room. A huge marble statue of Sun Yat Sen sits in the middle of the room. There's another set of doors leading to the actual tomb, but it is off limits because it is small and some unruly tourists in the past basically ruined the experience for everyone.

Once we made our way down the stairs, we met our local guide for Nanjing. I forgot his name, but since I'm not suppose to reveal the names it doesn't really matter. Mr. N here was by far the most hilarious guide we ever had. He had very witty jokes and was extremely knowledgeable when answering our questions. Though the underlying purpose was to get ourselves comfortable enough to start buying stuff, it was still a great addition to the trip. When Mr. N gave us a talk on the bus, everyone was bursting into peals of laughter. There was just no way you could stop of from laughing on the way to dinner. Our dinner was extremely fancy and was one of the best dinners we got. We were driven to an extremely fancy restaurant. If I remember correctly it may have been 4 to 5 stories high? Damn, was it huge. There were jade carvings on each floor serving as a mini exhibition for the guests. We got to see some amazing carvings up close. Our food was practically banquet style compared to the night before. There was amazing decor and we all sat comfortably eating our meal.

After our meal was our final destination for the night, Fuzi Miao 夫子廟, a temple dedicated to Confucius. Mr. N told us a very funny story about. He told us it is not worth seeing therefore we will not go see it. Confucius, he said, is practically blocked up by a wall and it's too dark inside to see anything. Rather let's explore the Fuzi Miao night market located right across the street. There is no street light and it was extremely dangerous to cross. So together as a herd of twenty some people, we were adults holding hands running across the street to evade motorcycles and buses. We let out such a roaring laugh that seemed to just disappear amongst the city's many sounds. It was a special moment only we knew. Fuzi Miao is a pedestrian mall with so many things to see, but we were given a measly half hour. That was only enough time to walk to the end of the street and then walk back. You can pay people in costume to pull you in a decorated rickshaw. It is beautifully lit up at night and all the architecture is based on traditional Chinese buildings. By the riverside, there is a free performance to watch. They had speakers blasting music across the river and on a tiny stage, you can see a dancer in a celestial maiden costume dancing. What?! This is just plain awesome. It's such a great blend of traditional and modern. 

When we were going to drive back to our hotel, a small disaster struck. One of the windows of our bus shattered completely and we had to wait for a replacement bus for another half hour or so. It was getting really late and there's fifty of us waiting on the street with shit loads of luggage. When we got back to the hotel, we were dead tired.

Hotel at Nanjing.

Howard Johnson at Shanghai.

Meiziqing Hotel at Hangzhou. Strong wifi.