frauke at large

Considering that this is my 100th blog entry, I thought I’d make it a special one and report from my day off in the tea plantations outside of Ningbo. I had previously attempted to visit them, when I went to see Tiantong temple almost two years ago, but had been denied access due to bad weather. However, with weather like we’ve been having over the last few days … there was no stopping us this time.

Before setting off on our adventure into the Ningbo countryside, we stopped to have coffee in a bijoux little cafe … didn’t even know that place like these existed in Ningbo … but I have been converted … there are lovely little cafes to hang out in. Might frequent it more often from now on.

A hot chocolate and a plate of chocolate biscuits later (which, by the way, tasted like real biscuits …), we were off onto the windy roads into the hills. I am told that Ningbo Mountain Tea is rather sought after in China and so seeing these masses of camelia plants which produce the tea leaves, was stunning.

As it turned out, tea plantations are quite the backdrop to have your wedding pictures taken and so not only did we see the farmers tending to the meticulously manicured rows of tea, but found, scattered amongst these, big white dots of meringue dresses with brides to be in them. You see, contrary to how wedding pictures work in the west, the Chinese take their wedding pictures way before the actual wedding day in picturesque locations and romantic settings, often whilst wearing jeans and trainers under the dress, which, in most cases is rented and will not be worn on the actual day. It’s all a bit of a stage show really … with the happy couple playing the protagonists.

On our quest to discover what gems the countryside has to offer, we also stumbled across a bee keeper and his thousands of bees (he was selling honey by the side of the road, but after a closer inspection of the containers in which the honey was sold in … I decided against buying any … will bring my own container next time), a field of plants that looked like Fritillaria meleagris and someone storing funny shaped bamboo wood outside of their house. All in all I’d say it was a pretty fun and eventful day out and a good one for Ningbo too … the tourist board would have been proud! Constantly living in amongst sky scrapers tends to make you forget that there are other things out there … things that are beautiful and that prove that not everything here needs to be experienced through an odd hyper-reality. A very good day out, indeed.

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