Category: Others Page 7 of 14

The Ancient Tea Horse Routes

On 09/08/2018

Extremely dangerous and difficult natural environment and transportation conditions create a strong defence on the South-West China. For thousand of years countless horse transporters used their strength and wisdom created an epic legend of Ancient Tea Horse Route.

The legend of Ancient Tea Horse Route started from the most prosperous period in Tang and Song Dynasty, prosperousity extended in Ming and Qing Dynasty and reached its peak after the establishment of Republic.

The Ancient Tea Horse Routes are divided in three routes:

Shaanxi <-> GanSu
Shaanxi <-> KangDing <-> Tibet
Yunnan <-> Tibet

These routes connect Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, further extended to Nipol, India, Bhudan, Sikkim, Laos. Its purpose went beyond a simple trade route, but a bridge to connect cultures and to exchange religions and humane values. The water transportation was almost impossible due to extreme difficult terrain, transportation by horse became the best solution. It is not exaggerate to describe the Ancient Tea Horse Routes as a legend of flesh, blood and lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztDLNVwjsQ

The construction of modern highways has significantly improved the unresearchable traffic problem, the traditional memory of ancient horse transporters travelled with tents, shabu-shabu and guns gradually faded away. The Ancient Tea Horse Routes today remains as the most mysterious and spectacular natural scenery in the world where contains endless astonishing and breath-taking cultural and natural heritage .

The Ancient Tea Horse Routes itself is culture that we can’t use describe with words for its magnificent beauty, the marvelous epic legend shound’t be forgotten.

Tea completes me

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 19/07/2018

In Others

I am grateful everyday and every time when I have a cup of tea. Because, it is not about how much fun of spending time,.money and efforts that I have devoted to tea and Chinese tea culture, it is how tea and wisdom in Chinese tea culture transformed me to become a better person.

Everytime I look down to tea in the cup, I see not only my self-consciousness, but also love and wisdom from my parents, and I see those hard working people who do their best to preserve the balance in the Nature and doing their best to continue the most valuable Chinese culture – #Humane and #Harmony,

In life, it is not those happy moment and cheerful memories complete me, but it is how those painful experiences and people hurted me helped to shape me; and tea supported me to reconnect myself in every down curve. In short, you can say, it’s tea that completes me.

I can’t stop the time, but in tea, I remain as a forever young and innocent child.

Brewing a cup of tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 18/07/2018

In Others

How to brew tea?
What is the right brewing method for tea ceremony?
1:10? 1:30? 1:50? 1:75? 1:100? or ….?

Frankly speaking are there right or wrong answers to these questions? Is the answer limited to quantity/volume only?

Each tea even from the same type, from the same region, but even same tea from different season and/or making process can create different characters. Tea is not a Rockefeller science but it is about nature and how to understand and adapt to the nature that to bring out the best taste.

As to the answer to tea ceremony, the answer will be another question – what do you want to achieve or to be enlightened from the process? It is about process, but yet not limited to process only.

“Cha Dao” in short can be translated as “The way of tea”. The question will be which way? for who? what and how? What can we learn from the Chinese character of Zen “禪” which can break into two parts “衣 Yi : Cloth” and “單 Dan : Single”?

Mama, we too want to have a peaceful and steady life!

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 06/07/2018

In Others

What is the further development after the last reportage? I am curious. I went to the peace demonstration launched by the World Uyghur Congress in Brussels on 27/4 which I was hoping to have the first hand objective observation. I do not understand the Uighur language so I can only observe from distance through their non-verbal body language. I noticed occasionally there were some look like Chinese face passed by the scene, when they spotted those Chinese faces, then they yelled and asked those people to leave. It is not the safety of Uighur demonstrators that worried me, I more concerned those passed-by Chinese faces. That day also there were some Belgian young people held signs for “Peace through Dialogue” but there were kindly suggested by the Belgian policies to leave for the sake of their safety. When thinking backwards, I was glad not only to see the presence of Belgian policies who are more experienced in handling various political demonstrations, but mostly how does the enforced law-abiding social education works. It would be hard to imagine the scenario in case of the original intention of peace demonstration goes wrong because of too much negative emotion and psychological pressure from the demonstrators.

In the situation that I did not understand the language but could only feel from their tones and non-verbal body languages, I have to admit that I felt discomfort that day because of hidden aggression and angry eyes. At that time, I had some simple questions in mind:

Isn’t the theme of the demonstration meant for “Peace”?
How can they find a good balance and persuasive arguments for peace with underlined hateful energy and exclude-others’ mind?
Can such slapping face negative energy really help for the peace and prosperity development that people in Xinjiang need?

This year will be the 9^th year since the bloodshed incident happened in Xinjiang on 5/7/2009, it’s conceivable that The World Uyghur Congress might again highlight the “Chinese Jasmine Revolution” it started with peace demonstration eventually went so wrong with deadly social unrest incident which eventually ended with bloodshed tragedy. It is hard to compare and analysis the actual situation based on the number of victims that claimed by the WUC and China official announcement. The official announcement for dead toll from the China government is 198 and mainly Chinese Han people, however the allegation from WUC is another story, they claim there were more deaths but couldn’t present any actual evident to support their allegation. So far the truth remains in “He says, She says”, so what is the reality and what is virtual? We can imagine how that bloodshed incident keeps many international human right activists with specific political agenda in mind busy. However, one thing we are curtained is that that unfortunately incidents took place on 5^th July 2009 has caused a gap between these two ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and China government should invest more and work harder to remand the bridge between gaps.

The challenge either for Chinese or Uighurs face in Xinjiang is not about the number of deaths in 2009, the most important challenge is building dreams for peace and prosperity for different ethnic groups in Xinjiang From the history from WWII, we clearly understood that only truth and diligent efforts to build a common dream for peace and prosperity can heal wound, therefore we can only hope the mist will be cleared one day by historians in the future.

History is like water that can’t flood backwards. The persistent hated is helpless to correct mistakes happened in the past and wouldn’t bring deaths back, but what have already happened should be prevailed and learnt honestly. All ethnic groups in Xinjiang province in China must work closely to create a better future with peace, safe and prosperity together for the current and the future generations.

The shadow of hate and opposition spread by the fundamental Muslim extremist who organized those unthinkable terrorist attacks in Europe and genocide happened in Iraq and Syria by Islamic State of Sharm (ISIS) since late 2000 still make the world dare not to relax, and most countries are still maintain high alert towards potential terrorism. 90% of Uighurs live in the Kashgar region in the southern of Xinjiang where it connects with Tajikistan to the West and borders by the Muslim sectarian Afghan and Pakistan on the Southwest. How to maintain stability in the region plays a certain role to support the world combat to the religious extremism. This is the reality that perhaps the overseas Uighur doctrines should learn to understand; because it meets with the world’s demand for peace if they could have a peaceful dialogue and cooperation with China government to manage this problem in the region.

The cause of rising of fundamental regions extremism is because of poverty and low education, the key to solve these problems must start from improving people’s lives. From the white paper published by the China government in recent years, we noticed a lot of construction funds are invested to improve the transportation conditions, the safety of drinking water and GDP in the remote mountainous areas in Xinjiang. There are many noticeable significant results at end of 2016, for example the poverty rate has dropped to 10%, the living conditions have improved quite a bit than before.

The peaceful demonstrations initiated by Rebiya Kader, an exile overseas Uighur leader, were unfortunately turned into a bloodshed due to improper crisis management. Her family, brother, son and daughter, who did not participate the fight wrote her a letter afterwards and it has been published to the public. The most profound emotional notion written in that letter perhaps is : Mom, we too want to have a peaceful and steady life.

Photo:: Tienshan Net

Recently the world is excited by the Russia FIFA 2018 football game, so as children in China. The China Football Federation has organized the football training center in Kashgar region . What a beautiful future we can see from those young happy and smiling faces.

The world is tired by hatred and struggle of opposition. For the young generations we love, we really should take our responsibilities more seriously to transform the negative and stressful energy to more positive and happy energy in our society. Instead of writing stories about hatred and differences, perhaps we should focus more on our ability and collective efforts to listen to the innocent laughter of children and give them a safe, peaceful and prosperous growing environment. After all, children who have hope and positives energy are the best seeds to drive the change in the future.

Hopes start from today!

Save yourself from afternoon fatigue

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 06/06/2018

In Others

This morning I received an email to promote Yoga lesson today and was attracted to its highlight: Save Yourself From Afternoon Fatigue. That is a very good and important health message.

Indeed in this warm late spring / early summer day, we sometime feel tire or even fatigue easily in the afternoon. But it is not everyone can have the luxury to find time or condition to exercise Yoga in the early morning or after lunch. But I do hope the following tips are useful to you:

Take time for tea breaks, i.e. 10 a.m. / 2,30 or 3:00 p.m..

Not only move yourself from the chair, move your mind from work, but also give yourself a break to enjoy a moment with yourself when enjoying a cup of water, coffee or, of course, if possible, a cup of tea.

I know many offices have automatic coffee/tea machine but it does not offer you any pure and good taste, most of all it contains too much sugar and artificial flavors. At this moment, I strongly suggest Sugar-free and keep away from having too much sugar and/or sweet

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desserts !

Cold brew lightly fermented Oolong to boost your energy with some refreshing flavors and tastes can be a good choice in the warm afternoon.

Do some simple stretching

Here I would like to encourage Managements who care about work performance, business growth, team work and work efficiency, then they should consider to promote mini office stretching exercise.

After all ONLY happy and healthy employees can assure you to enjoy positive and better working performance and business number.

Having a siesta after lunch, even mini is good

Actually close your eyes and enjoy a siesta after lunch is very helpful. Watch out your neck when enjoying a siesta.

If you like to sit outdoor to enjoy sun and wind, then perhaps should sit under trees in the shadow instead of taking a sun bath, because the heat from sun and warm air probably will consume your energy but not giving.

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Having refreshing sugar-free drink

Have some slices of lemon with you, because a glass of lemon water is really refreshing.

Staying healthy is not difficult, you don’t need to invest a lot; fittness membership is fine but is not absolutely necessary; you don’t need an agenda to stay fit and healthy.

But you do need to take time and pay attention to every tiny detail. Because each detail counts and your health is important.

Values in tea

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 10/03/2018

In Others

“Can’t live without tea”

This is a very popular claim we heard from time to time,

often even we said that to ourselves.

But, what kind of tea that you can’t live without exactly?

In the reality, people calculate the price when they purchase tea by ignoring the quality differences, they judge the quality based on the aroma from dried leaves and compare the price

without knowing the fundamental differences in

premium quality vs. low or even aromatic quality.

Some like to judge the quality of tea based on the content of Tea Polyphenols, but

Indeed the content of Tea Polyphenols in tea would influence the taste but it does not determine the quality grade of tea

Some say teas from high altitude are better than teas from lower altitude, but is it true?

Indeed there are some influences to flavoru and taste, but the altitude of tea garden does not determine the quality of taste in tea

At end, the key leads us to the critical question about what are values in tea

How the influence of human’s control of each process management based on cumulative experience and hard working of a life time”.

That’s is the value can’t be duplicated and/or replaced.

In life we wish people appreciate who we are, willing to listen and understand us; but not to judge us simply based on what we are currently.

Even though tea can’t speak, but if you truly want to enjoy the health benefits from tea and want to use tea to facilitate the enlightenment process, then perhaps you should also try to understand the values behind each leaf.

#teatalk #teasommelier #puretea #healthylifestyle #tea

Choice in life

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 05/03/2018

In Others

Lots of unexpected challenges, Up’s & Down’s and changes happened in life that oftenneed us to make a choice for decision that we can’t choose to want or not to want because the only choice we have is how to face and manage it.

When facing unbearable stress and pain, we often have to bit our lips and the only choice is to try harder, harder and harder.

It does not matter how strong we think we are, there will be time when we feel tire and weary, the most unbearable in life would be the emptiness in heart.

When facing strong fist, need to learn how to protect self by keeping head down and yield whether we like it or not.

Regardless the weight on shoulders, the only thing we can do is to keep the back straight, head up and move further.

Have been through many speechless chaotic changes in life, one valuable lesson is what can’t knock me down but only make me stronger and keep me calm.

Finally I realize, the most proactive way to handle unexpected problems starts from accepting but not avoiding.

I am who I am that not need to live my life by expecting other’s appraisal

Criticism behind my back can’t be avoided, the only choice I have is to accept without complaining

Before knowing others must first trying to understand self

Before criticizing others must first examining self through and through

Before putting blames on others must first questioning own innocence.

Instead of thinking how to settle conflicts with others, first trying to manage self

Whether others know or understand me, I don’t ask; because nothing can be kept for long by asking.

When the air is getting too heavy to bear, there is no better way than standing still and face the breeze with smile.

Even if the road is heard, still need to move forwards and path the way myself;

Even though often feel as if walking against the strong breeze and storm, but still it is the journey that I must manage myself.

Whether to taste a cup of tea when it’s warm or cold, that’s a simple choice that one must accept the taste without judging or complaining

Making a choice for a cup of tea can be so easy and simple, isn’t it we can also try to adapt the same to life?

After being through so many chaotic changes, warm and cold in life, the most valuable lesson is to accept, at the end can still stand straight with a smile.

Good days are fine but bad days provide more priceless lessons in life

To have is fine, not to have is also nothing no regret for because nothing is more important than peace in mind

Nuttiness, in one hand can be seen as a very generous attitude towards life, but on the other hand, it can also be translated as a selective passivism.

Passive but not withdrawing.

In this selective passivism requires proactive approach to confront and handling but not avoiding.

So what is the meaning in life and how to manage it? It is more or less a choice in life.

We all have different attitude towards life and there is no right or wrong

For me, life is but a simple choice of how to live with a peaceful mind.

Walk well first before running

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 20/02/2018

In Others

Preparing a cup of tea seems very simple and easy, all you need are tea (either tea bag or loose leaf), water and teaware (either tea pot with cup or a simple glass or mok), but how truly how many people really know how to brew tea that can serve their needs for health?

Internet opens a lot of interesting channels and opportunities for self-learning of tea ceremony, either Chinese or Japanese and people like to talk about Zen in tea. But what exactly is Zen in tea? Can copying movements and enjoy a tea moment be considered as the moment of Zen already?

Either about learning tea or tea ceremony, regardless which one you are interested in China or Japan, the first step and the most crutial learning point is “MORALITY”.

Some probably think lightly about the learning of tea and practice of tea ceremony, because how complicate would it be with tea and water? but how to comprehend and able to deepen the learning, one must first learn how to match and to present a harmony taste.

It’s like before learn how to run, one must first learn how to stand and walk.

Cha Dao, What Dao?

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 08/02/2018

In Others

Every time think of those questions I have came across, I can only laugh with tear and don’t know how to answer:

How long will it take for me to become a Tea Master?
How long and how much will it cost to learn Cha Dao?

Cha Dao, Cha Dao, The way of Tea, what tea? which Dao?

Only learning how to brew tea, nicely name it tea art, talking about tea culture with words;

No knowing the reason behind, not able to implement the essence of morals in actions;

Not able to commit without asking things in return, speaking without heart;

What come with teas? Where goes with the Dao?

Cha Yi, Cha Yi, the art of tea, which art? is it really for tea or for egoism?

Not have sufficient knowledge about tea, knowing the name without knowing its soul;

Dressing up with beautiful cloth and performing fine looking movements, emptiness under the appearance, like a dancing butterfly that does not last long if not knowing the essence behind each movement and meaning of Zen.

Which future good pure quality teas can have, if not enough people knowing the roots of tea, not showing how to show respect and to learn tea?

Calculating price when purchasing tea, chatting loudly when tasting tea, how do you management tea moment when you normally should listen to the value of “Harmony, Tranquility, Purity, Respect” in tea?

It’s sad to see how thousands of year Chinese tea culture end up with a simple show of Cha Yi (the art of tea); sometimes it worries me out and makes me sad, after all I am just a normal human being.

The more exhaution I have, the more it motivates me to clean my head up. No matter what, the teaching from parents forever live in me;

The pocket can be empty, but the heart may not;

muscles may feel tire and weak, but not with emptiness in heart;

regardless how many challenges lying ahead, must keep the back bone straight;

I am just a small Cha Ren (Tea Woman), devote my life to tea with joy.

Come on, let’s have a cup of tea !

Enlightenment from the definition of “Organic Farming”

By Mei Lan Hsiao

On 08/01/2018

In Others

In a exploration and documentation program of Simon Reeve on Canvas tonight, one Irish organic farmer has drew the perfect definition for Organic Farming:

Organic farming is not just about environmental concerns, but most importantly are about commitments to ethics, integrity and morals

We can and certainly should extend this definition to what a good person means – it is not just about behaviors and manners, but most importantly are the underlined respects and practices of Ethics, Integrity and Morals in everyday’s life.

With the same principles, we should question ourselves the following questions:

how can we introduce ourselves as Cha Ren (茶人, Tea Person) if we fail to emphasis the importance of Professionalism, Ethics, Honesty, Integrity and Morals?
Often I received question about the Tea Art training program from tea sommeliers. Perhaps it sounds hard but here I have question to tea sommeliers: How can we introduce ourselves as Tea Sommelier if we only focus on the presentation of tea (茶藝 Cha Yi) without solid knowledge, missing the continuous learning attitude and basic respect towards to pure and authentic quality in flavor and taste, and Nature; without the basic understanding and respect what Professionalism, Ethics, Honesty, Integrity and Morals?