All the tea in China

On Tuesday we had great plans to visit a water town just outside Shanghai.  We were all up and ready to go at 730am when the car got a puncture!  We decided to jump on the metro and head to Yu Yuan Gardens instead.  Yu Yuan Gardens were established in 1559 and contain the most famous tea house in China.  I was pleased we were going to be there early as they can get up to 1000 visitors a day!

When we arrived it seemed a little busier than expected but it was not too bad and the buildings and surroundings were stunning.  We explored for a bit and then headed for the tea house.  We decided to take part in a tea ceremony and the lady told us that we'd picked a great day - the first day of the season.  Unwittingly we had come on one of the busiest days of the year!  The tea ceremony was excellent and William and Oliver joined in and tried green tea, Jasmine tea (which flowers in the tea pot!), oolong tea and ginseng tea.  We learnt all about the different teas for different parts of the body and that you can reuse some leaves up to 8 times.  I was amazed to experience the range of flavour and to discoved that I quite liked them!  We ended up buying a few from the vast selection to try at home and now have grand plans to get several pots as each type of tea needs its on pot!  After the ceremony we wandered around the garden which were lovely.