Source: CCTV.com

08-02-2006 17:50

Welcome to Rediscovering China! I'm Johnny Johnson with a new challenge for you. If you were out camping and some leaves from a nearby tree blew into some water you were boiling, would you have the courage or the curiosity to taste the brew? Well Emperor Shen Nung, 4500 years ago did just that…said “HOW, this tastes pretty good!” And the rest is history! People have been tasting drinking and enjoying Tea glorious Tea, ever since!

Tea has become so intricately woven into the finely embroidered tapestry of society in China, that life and a world without TEA would be, simply unthinkable! AND for many years, Tea Houses have provided the nurturing environment for the growth [and development] of the Tea Culture. You could almost say, the Tea Culture is alive and well today thanks to Tea Houses…Those Timeless Treasures!

I’ve come to West Mountain, about 18 kms from the city. This is my favorite place for having tea in the capital of China, Beijing. It’s a tea house in an old Buddhist temple, built about 1000 years ago. So what’s the connection between tea and Buddhism in China? Well, here’s the story. 1500 years ago, when Buddhism was gaining popularity and spreading across China, Buddhist monks decided that tea had certain medicinal qualities. So, wherever they built their temples and monasteries, they also planted…you guessed it, tea trees along with them. As a result, wherever Buddhism spread and traveled across China, TEA and the Tea Culture traveled right along with it.

The relationship between tea and temples dates many years. There’s a story, Buddha Damo fell asleep in the 6th year of his 9 years spent studying and facing the wall. So, to stay awake he tore off his eyelids and these emerged wonderfully into a tea tree. He finished his studies, staying awake, facing the wall and drinking tea. In fact a very long time ago monks began planting tea trees and drinking tea. The popularity of planting and drinking tea among Buddhists spread tea’s popularity to the masses. So, China’s Tea Culture was formed and became an important part of Chinese history.

This beautiful lily pond gathers the spring water that gets piped down from the mountain above where it rises from deep beneath the ground. The purity of the water is important for brewing fine teas. That’s why this water is used by the old teahouse in the tea garden below us for brewing the notable teas they serve.