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YUNNAN TAIWANaccidentally blew into his pot of hot water, or so the legend
goes. For more than 4,700 years, tea has traveled the world,
so that today it’s grown in India, Nepal, Japan, Kenya, and
other mountainous countries between the Tropics of Cancer
and Capricorn. Tea takes many forms—black, green, oolong,
dark, white—but they all come from an
evergreen plant called Camellia sinen-
sis. For centuries, tea has been used as a
form of money and to pay tribute. It has
also been taxed as a precious commod-
ity. (Any American fifth grader can tell
you about the dramatic role tea played
in Boston Harbor in the years leading
up to the Revolutionary War.) Tea is also
central to China’s three great schools of
philosophical thought. Confucius taught
that tea could help people understand their inner dispositions.
Buddhists believe that drinking tea is one of the four ways to
concentrate the mind—along with walking, feeding fish, and
sitting quietly—to help link people to the realms of meditation.
Taoists say that tea, which they accept as an ingredient in the
elixir of immortality, puts you in harmony
with the natural world. In other words,
tea drinking is infused throughout every
aspect of life in China. It’s a part of every
day and for every level of society.
Many people start the morning by
dropping a handful of tea leaves into a
thermos to carry with them and refill
with more hot water throughout the
day. On just about any corner, men can
be found sitting on upturned crates or NG MAPS