A Postcard a day - 14 July 2015

Good morning everyone!,

Today we 'travel' to China, as I'm showing you a postcard I received this week all the way from China. It was sent to me by Zihu.

It depicts a beautiful tea set that is used for the famous tea ceremony. 

Now for the stamp:

It looks like a ship connected to an off-shore drilling station.

If you'd like to know more about the tea ceremony,

I have found some info on the internet about it (what would we do without internet I say...)

I will post that at the bottom of this post.

That's it from me.

Have a good day and CU tomorrow,

Lisca

The Chinese practice a form of tea ceremony called Gong Fu, which has some similarities and many more differences to the possibly more well-known Japanese tea ceremony. 

In a Gong Fu style tea ceremony, the tea master preparing the tea for the group is considered an artist in his or her own right. 

Styles for pouring the water and tea vary individually, and many devote a lot of time practicing difficult and artistic maneuvers. Usually the equipage for this tea ceremony would be a clay Yi-Xing pot and several small teacups, a tea sink or shallow bowl for draining water into, and a few bamboo tools for handling the hot objects. 

The tea master will arrange the teapot and cups in a circular fashion over the tea sink or in the bowl, and pour hot water into each to rinse the objects and to warm them so that the temperature of the tea is more consistent. This rinse water is discarded, and then a generous helping of tea leaves, usually oolong, is measured into the pot. More hot water is then poured into the pot and the tea leaves will begin steeping. 

Every infusion in Gong Fu ceremony is very quick, about 30 seconds, though the method for timing is never exactly precise. In one tradition hot water is poured over the outside of the teapot, and when the water is seen to be fully evaporated, the tea is ready to be poured. In another, the tea master must count a full 4 deep breaths before beginning to pour. Either of these methods is roughly a 30 second steep, and remains consistent throughout the multiple following infusions. 

Then the tea master will begin pouring in a continuous flow around to each of the teacups, a little at a time, resulting in each person having the equal amount and strength of tea in his or her cup. After enjoying this first round of tea, the leaves may be re-steeped for many more infusions.