We took a long bus ride, over
4-hours, from Kunming to MoJiang. Awoono’s friend, a tea factory owner named
Mr. Wang, came to the bus station to meet us. He took us to another town
outside of MoJiang called BiXi. It used to be quite an important city, but we
could see that it has become rundown. However, it still felt very charming to
us. We enjoyed walking through the narrow alleys and looking at the old
buildings.
Mr. Wang led us through a
nondescript doorway and a beautiful courtyard opened up - that’s where we were
going to eat lunch. I could tell tea is part of life here. In a small room,
there was tea that was in the withering phase of production. The restaurant
owner came out and greeted us with a pot of “restaurant tea,” which was made
from their mao cha (unfinished) Puer. Our lunch was a feast, consisting of a
lot of delicious wild vegetables. We felt very relaxed, surrounded by friendly
locals in this charming little town.
After lunch, Mr. Wang took us to a
tea field to pick tea. We loved what we saw and how we felt. We knew the rest
of the day was going to be fun and interesting. The tiring and long bus ride was
totally worth it. In my next tea posts, I will have lots of Puer tea
information to share!
