China - a bigger holland with mountains?

Its funny. Travelling in Fuijan province by car or train. Where ever I look I see water. I mentioned earlier that to grow anything if it can be flooded controllable it seems they won't grow! The lanscape is much flat, at least.patchwise, with mountains in the hinterground.

On the train I sit on window seat. The guy next to me is big but relative young. So far (coffe sandwhich lunch milkdrink) he has paid. Not allowing me to pay at all. I feel strange. I think he treats me as a guest to his home. We don't speak much. He'll get off before shanghai. His english is minimal. My chinese dismal.

Mandatory id control on train

Hmm. I guess we're entering a soecial zone. When the pass me with their portable reader I ignore them. They pass by. Still strange for me. Swedes generally in sweden can't be asked for ID by the police.

I think anyone in china can move freely now. At least to shanghai. But govt apparently want to know who is where.

Take picture?

Occasionally some guys want to take picture with me. Sometimes girls if they dare. These were taken near or in the xihu park fuzhou.

Oh. Abd the hunnantv from Changsha wanted me to say their name. Ok. Maybe I get famous there now. Haha.

Life in fuzhou

People working.

Guanyin Minitemple

In Fuzhou I visited and stayed my friend monk Guode at his guan yin temple. Small but sufficient. We meet first in Beijing. But meanwhile he took over this temple.

Simple conditions. But what do you need?

The temple is on a small hill with 4 temples in total. One buddhist. One taoist (using buddhism teachings and taoism). One monkey/elephant temple. The head temple for that type. One folks temple with local legends and gods. They all peacefully coexists next to eachother. It seems they take turns in chanting as to not disturbe eachother.

Is it cruel?

To eat a boiled egg in front of a chicken. Can it tell its an egg? An egg from a duck? Salted boiled egg?

VIP tea

Today. We drank tea. Then went to bank. Drank phuerh tea with monk and nun. Ate veggies with them. Hao zhi! Then drank Da Hong Pao tea. Did some chanting and meditation. Then saw that our car had a flat tire. We were late for our appointment. Where we drank tea. And got samples for three  teas, as our the general manager wanted to give us a good tea but we didn't know which. When we sample we can tell her which tea we like. Then we went to cittra/xiqin store to show/intriduce the instrument to the ladies of our appointment. There we drank tea! One was a 12 years old stored Da Hong Pao! That was a first. Nice! A bit of earthy flavor but quite good. The way we tend to steep puerh in west is probably all wrong, gets too strong. Shang was trying out the cittras and then we drank more tea. After this we went to pick up a mechanic to take the tire to a shop. Its been raining and cold pretty much all day. When they fixed the tire and we tried to pay. The cost was nothing! The reason is probably that the person who directed us to the repairs is married to a local chief of police.

The mechanic guy who helped us is 17 years old. Freckles. Reminded me of my 17 yo brother in Norway who learn mechanics.

Now. Back home eating light meal -  takeout steamed bun and fried pancake with veggie biscuit filling (chao bing).

Taking a warm footbath.

How was your day?

tao of tea

in the morning I prepare some lapsang souchong w condensed milk  i only wrote the text, wish i could draw this nicely.

Goooodmoooorning wuyishan!

Tea making

The drying or traditional roasting of da hong pao requires turning the leaves every 5 hours by hand. My timing was good. And the room felt like a good sauna!

Perfect tofu reflection?

... and what you need to do with so much tea - yin and yang so to say, or the "TIPO" principle.

Goqin maker visit

Today we visit temple where a master who makes Goqin (chinese cittra) resides. The master is in solitary meditation but we meet the aprentice who is very good.

Of course we also have some tea. 5+ times.

Goqin maker visit

Today we visit temple where a master who makes Goqin (chinese cittra) resides. The master is in solitary meditation but we meet the aprentice who is very good.

Of course we also have some tea. 5+ times.