The Tea Plantation, cont'd...

As we entered the plantation complex, the first image to greet us was the golden statue you see below, nestled in the center of a beautifully landscaped courtyard.

(Below) An ornate and massive teapot. One can only imagine where this may have been used to serve tea at one time or another...or perhaps simply for decoration. Either way, it was interesting and I photographed it.

(Below) The nice ladies at the tea plantation show us an amazing technique for packing a very large amount of tea into a much smaller canister. After a brief tea ceremony in which we learned not only some history and cultural details surrounding this magnificent beverage, but also proper serving and flavouring ot the tea itself using added natural ingredients such as dried hawthorn berries and orange peels. One for sweet, one for slightly bitter and aromatic in this case. We indulged of course and several people picked up 1 or more canisters of the finest grade Dragon Well Green Tea we could buy. After all, and here's the bad news folks; they do not export the first flush grade-A tea, for any except the emperor (at the time) and for political dignitaries and such. Even within China, supplies of the tea are in limited quantity. Henceforth, we stocked up. ;)

Bronzed.

A very cool statue representing a warrior from the days of old. There was some articles of historical significance mentioned during the taking of this photo but in the adventures that followed, I'm afraid I lost the information amidst the chaos of my mind. All I can think of looking back at this now is; I sure would like to accomplish enough in my lifetime to warrant a grand statue such as this. He must've been an important part of Chinese history to have been honored in such a way.

Oh those Lions...

Sihing Mike spent some quality time riding many of these stone animals but here we just messed around. Here, Graeme gives the lion a little love n' attention.

(Below) Shawn feigns being eaten. I'm sure if that statue could speak, oh what tales of tasty arms and kung-fu kisses it would tell. Lol!!

Hotel Art Objects - Not for Export, lol.

Yep, those are carved ivory tusks, not quite sure if it's elephant or not, but from what I recall..it was. While I do not condone the purchase or sale of ivory (poachers should all die, really), the intricacy of this piece of artwork was unbelievable. The painstaking hours it would've taken to compose such a masterful work goes beyond description.

And then there was all this Jade.... all of this artwork and dozens (or hundreds) more like it were scattered throughout the halls and rooms of the Jinma Palace Hotel. Some of these ornate sculptures have been carved out of enormous single pieces of jade, how crazy is that!? Not to mention, very very expensive. By comparison the prices in Canadian would be astronomical, but considering the yuan price-tags, they seem somewhat affordable.

Chairman Mao, taller than I remember him....

And of course what scholastic exploration would be complete without a giant statue of Chairman Mao.