Parco nazionale del Gran Paradiso

The second park I visited was Parco nazionale del Gran Paradiso in Italy. The trip from Écrin to Gran Paradiso took just three hours but I arrived at the camping after noon. In the valley of Aosta I had to buy some bread and wine. The camping Gran Paradiso Dr. Franco Caviglia is located quite high in the mountains and offers the best starting point for many day hikes. It is a real mountain camping offering spots in between trees and offering little luxury.

Camping Gran Paradiso Dr. Franco Caviglia

I spent the afternoon with a fruity local red wine and antipasto Piemontese consisting of cauliflower, carrot, paprika, olives, green beans, artichokes hearts, capers, onion and tomatoes. There is no fixed recipe for antipasto Piemontese. You basically boil tomatoes put through a food mill together with vinegar and olive oil and add a selection of vegetables cut to bite size. Boil until the vegetables are tender, put the mixture in sterilised jars and let it sit for at least a month. This type of antipasto was just a way to preserve vegetables for the winter.

Hike 4: Refugio Chabod and Victor-Emmanuel II

This was just a stunning long day hike. You can tell Gran Paradiso is a protected nature area. The landscape was pristine. Total time for this walk was about 10 hours.

Refuge Frédéric Chabod

I didn’t quite expect to find a caffè and blueberry pie in a mountain hut but there it was.

Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele II

The second mountain hut on my hike was Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele II. This is the place where you sleep when you attempt to climb the Gran Paradiso (4061 meter) summit.

Hike 5: Rifugio Città di Chivasso

On the last day I hiked from Pont to Rifugio Città di Chivasso on Colle del Nivolet. After a steep climb the route led mostly through green pastures. I found the whole park just stunningly beautiful. The routes I hiked where of the E category (E = escursionistico), which is a category higher than T (turistico) and below EE (escursionistico esperti). For EE you might need light mountaineering equipment to cross small exposed sections.

Parc National des Écrins

The Écrins massif is the southernmost massif in the Alps with a summit above four thousand meters. The massif lies in the Écrins National Park, the parts just outside the park perimeter are used for winter sports. After a tip from a running friend, I chose Puy-Saint-Vincent as my first destination. The distance was too long to drive in one day so I camped at the lakeside of Lac d’Annecy on my first night. Sunday I reached Dutch owned Camping Croque Loisirs, which is a lovely, green camping at an elevation of 1450 meters.

Camping Croque Loisirs

Hike 1: Tour du Bal

The first day I hiked an easy route starting from the camping. There was basically one tour which matched my criteria, climbing up to a ridge at about 2700 meters, following the ridge for some time and then down to the camping. It was clearly not a popular route, I just met one other hiker who told me I was walking Tour du Bal. Later I found that the route crossed the Col du Bal, hence the name.

The ridge at noon.

Hike 2: Glacier Blanc

The second day I hiked to Glacier Blanc, the longest glacier of the park. The snout of the glacier is quite close to a mountain hut. This hut is a starting point for climbs to the Barre des Écrins (4,102 m) and guided hikes on the glacier. The route is quite busy with climbers carrying rope and helmets. This was the only day the weather turned a little foul with low clouds and the occasional rain shower.

Starting point is a parking spot at Pré de Madame Carle at 1874 meters. Le Refuge du Glacier Blanc is located at an elevation of 2550 meters. The 676 meter climbs takes about 2,5 hours and is quite steep at times, steep enough to need metal chains to pull yourself up.

At Pré de Madame Carle I had one of the best salade Niçoise with French mustard dressing. You can make a similar dressing by whisking (optional: garlic and/or shallot) mustard and white wine vinegar together. Whisk in the rapeseed oil, then add the water (whisking continuously) to emulsify the dressing. 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, splash white wine vinegar, 3 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1-2 tbsp warm water.

Hike 3: Lac de l'Eychauda

My last day in Écrins I hiked to Lac de l'Eychauda in the blazing sun. About 3 hours to reach the lake and 3 hour back to my car, so a pretty easy hike. The view during the ascent and decent was beautiful.

This journey continues here Parco nazionale del Gran Paradiso

Merchant city Xiamen (Amoy)

“Amoy is nu te zien: het gegons wordt luider, het tussendek is leeggelopen op kisten, kooien, manden en enkele doodzwakken en stervenden na, die in hun vuil liggen. Velen herkennen nu de kust, en de bruine helling van de hoge stenen van Kau Lung Seu. Anderen hebben Amoy nooit gezien maar herkennen het toch. Bijna niemand zal er blijven, Amoy zuigt landverhuizers in en spuwt ze weer uit, in en uit, uit en in.”

— J. Slauerhoff, Het Leven op Aarde

I do love Xiamen, once known as Amoy in the Hokkien language. Xiamen is built on an island. It has a distinct dialect and cuisine. Xiamen also has a subtropical climate and the people of Xiamen love their plants. The old part of town has few high rise buildings, many small alleys and a food market to explore.

Dutch poet and novelist J. Slauerhoff painted a dark, grim picture of Amoy in his book ‘Het Leven op Aarde’ (1934). Much has changed since the 1930s.

“Nacht, zwaarheet en sterreloos over land en zee. De lucht, volgezogen met een hitte die zij nergens aan af kan staan, aan het geblakerde land niet, aan de zee niet, met de gloed van een lange dag verzadigd, worgt het leven. Niets beweegt. ”

— J. Slauerhoff, Het Leven op Aarde

City marketing in Xiamen.

The people of Xiamen love their plants. My hotel was at walking distance from Zhongshan Park which had fine collection of bonsai trees. The park was opened in 1931 to honour Dr. Sun Yat-sen in China known as Sun Zhongshan, instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty before the Republic of China (1912–1949) was established.

Xiamen food culture

Xiamen has a distinct cuisine, influenced by overseas Chinese over the centuries. The Chinese diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines originates from the south-eastern part of Fujian Province. There is peanut sauce and Sha Cha Mian (沙茶面), which reminded me of Laksa soup. Sand worm jelly (土笋冻) is basically a street food. The sand worm is cooked in water and it releases its natural gelatine in the water. The worms and water are poured into moulds. As it cools down the jelly forms. Mine was served with soy sauce, chilli powder and fresh coriander leaves.

Fresh crab

I had a crab prepared for me, which I could choose among many crabs from a fish tank. I was a bit sceptical when the restaurant owner was weighing the animal; you pay by weight. But the dish looked stunning afterwards. It was very difficult to eat however. They were surprised I couldn't crack the shell with my teeth like a proper human being, so they gave me a pair of scissors.

Dazhong Sate Noodles

On Zhongshan Road 49 there is a small shop serving Sha Cha Mian (沙茶面) a peanutty soup with Malaysian flavours. The Sha Cha Mian was served in humble paper cups.

Xiamen is packed with small eateries. For a quick lunch I had noodles mixed with peanut sauce and a bowl of wonton soup. I love these noodle shops.

The last restaurant I went to was another noodle place famous from television if I understand the poster outside correctly. In the ‘kitchen’ you were able to choose the stock and select your toppings. I had planned to get a similar soup similar to Sha Cha Mian, but for some reason I ended up with a more plain meat broth. Still, it was a great noodle soup. I selected blood cake, tripe, lung pipe, small eggs, fish balls and greens as toppings.

Anxi Tieguanyin Tea 安溪鉄観音

After Longjing and Wuyishan, Anxi was the third well known tea area I visited in China. Anxi is famous for Tieguanyin or Iron Goddess oolong. Anxi is a county about 50 kilometers north of Xiamen. I booked a hotel on 805 Datong Road, which was by coincidence on a major tea sellers road. Before I arrived in Anxi I had a romantic idea about the tea village. The village was in fact a rather large city with many high rise buildings.

But I arrived late in the evening. It was a bit of a hassle to reach my hotel. There were no taxi’s in Quanzhou. Well, not entirely true, the taxi’s where men on motorbikes. I took bus instead, which got stuck in traffic almost instantly. Gridlocked in the afternoon rush hour. After checking into my hotel pretty much every restaurant was closed. I walked into a street side restaurant, which indeed had closed, but they had some duck stew left while tomorrow’s duck stew was already on the fire. The owner had to run cross the street to get some rice and soup for me. The beer was not kept in the fridge and was too warm to drink.

Chinese Tea Capital

The next morning I visited the whole sales tea market called Chinese Tea Capital on Hebin North Road, Anxi County. Farmers bring fresh oolong to the market in big plastic bags. At that moment I wasn’t sure about the quality of the tea which was being sold. Later I learned that it was not the premium teas which end up at the market. Still, it was serious business, with potential buyers smelling and tasting the teas spilling tea leaves all over the place.

Just outside the tea market there are small shops in where farmers sell the tea directly. These teas are a step up in quality, but still very affordable. You can have a proper tea tasting session. I walked into one of the shops. The daughter of the owner did the talking. I asked to taste two teas: a Tieguanyin - of course - and a roasted oolong tea. Tieguanyin is the Chinese translation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and there is an origin myth connected to the Tieguanyin tea. The owner prepared both teas for me.

Waiting for the tea to steep.

By the time I arrived in Anxi I had a serious cold. My sense of smell went out of the window. I simply decided to buy both teas and back home in Amsterdam I was quite happy with my choice. The daughter of the tea farmer sent me some photos of the farm - and presumably her father - via WeChat. My trip resembled Phileas Fogg’s journey. The tea villages high in the mountains are difficult to reach without a car. Buses run services into the mountains but they are slow. I didn’t have a spare day.

Special Economic Zone Shenzhen

Shenzhen’s population exploded from 30.000 residents in 1980 to almost 13 million in 2017. How did this happen? In 1980 Shenzhen became the first Special Economic Zone of China (SEZ). This meant Shenzhen could profit from free market-oriented economic policies and flexible governmental measures, making the area attractive for trade and (foreign) investments. Money, and subsequently, people poured into the former market town.

Shenzhen now boasts the biggest (wholesale) electronics market in the world , in the Huaqiang-bei (华强北) subdistrict. The market consists of thousands of small shops in several high rise building in one street. Each building has many floors of shops. You can buy literally any hardware you need. One shop has hundreds of different on-off-buttons, the next shop is packed with USB-cables and yet another shop sells RAM in all shapes and forms imaginable.

I spent a long afternoon walking each floor of the electronics market - which took many hours. I had nothing to buy, but wanted to soak in the atmosphere. The place was relaxed and buzzing at the same time. Delivery men on electric scooters were picking up and delivering small packages left and right.

Start-up companies flock to Shenzhen because of the easy access to hardware. If you want to built something, nowhere in the world you can do it faster. Speed is everything. And most importantly, a lot of R&D is done in Shenzhen and China in general.

Huaqiangbei (华强北) subdistrict.

IoT is ramping up for 5G.

China wouldn’t be China if you couldn’t get a cheap meat broth with rice and some fried duck in the back alleys of the market. I have to say, KFC and Starbucks were also very present in the electronics market.

Build Your Dreams

Shenzhen hosts the headquarters of Chinese electric carmaker BYD Auto. Built on a company which made just batteries in 1995, BYD - short for: Build Your Dreams - is now a major player in the electric car and bus industry. In BYD’s homecity 21.000 taxi’s are battery powered. Not without problems, not all 21.000 electric BYD taxi’s are operational at the moment because the charging infrastructure isn’t ready yet for that many electric vehicles. Still, there is a fair chance your first electric car will not be a Tesla or a Volkswagen but a Chinese BYD.

Yum cha 飲茶 in Guangzhou

Guangzhou (广州市) is the capital city of Guangdong Province. Population: 15 million in the city and 25 million in the metro area. From 2017 to 2018 the city grew an amazing 3,8%. The city is also known as Canton. It was by far the smoggiest city I experienced in China. By the time I arrived in Guangzhou I wasn’t feeling hundred percent due to lack of sleep, in the first few days I couldn’t fall asleep until 3 AM; pesky jetlag. In Guangzhou my throat hurt and I lost my sense of smell.

View from the hotel. It is not just the dirty window, the air atmosphere in Guangzhou did not feel good.

Guangzhou is all about trade. Between 1757–1842 the city served as way for China to control its trade with the West. The Yīkǒu tōngshāng (一口通商, "Single port trading relations") meant that all trade between China and overseas traders had to go via Canton. The Canton System fell apart after the First Opium War in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking.

Guangzhou kept its position as a trading hub. The streets are littered with small shops and tiny electric scooters are buzzing on the pavements and roads delivering packages and takeaway meals. The bigger shopping streets are upmarket and busy on a Sunday. The shopping area felt like the Kalverstraat on steroids. About 30 kilometers from the city center the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone (1984) promoted the development of Guangzhou as a manufacturing hub.

It looks like a simple stew but this was packed with flavour. The vegetable is kohlrabi cooked in meat stock with (fish?) balls and bits of meat, tripe and lung pipe.

No, I didn't get a ‘massage’, I just like the colourful lights.

Yum Cha

On a Sunday morning in Guangzhou there is only one thing you have to do: yum cha (‘drink tea’). Guangzhou restaurant 广州酒. Original branch:- 2 Wen Chang Lu, Liwan district 总店- 荔湾区文昌南路2号 was not so far from my hotel. The place was pretty busy but they sat me at a big round table which was reserved for other small parties and solo-eaters. The menu was in Chinese so I showed the waitress photos of the standard dim sum I wanted to try. I selected aged pu’er as the tea. I have to say, this was the best dum sum I ever tasted. In the true spirit of Guangzhou as a trading city on Sunday’s there is a 20% surcharge on the bill.

Of course I went to more than one ‘yum cha’ restaurant in Ghuangzhou. Chicken feet are a classic, and so is jellyfish. You can never eat enough shumai so I always order some of that.

Canton Tower

For a brief time Canton Tower was the tallest tower in the world. I took the elevator to the lowest observation deck at 433 meters. With an entrance price of ￥150 the Chinese visitors are definitely not the working poor. Everyone is making selfies. That’s what we do these days. Make selfies.

Run East factory visit

My visit to China didn’t stay unnoticed for long. A few days after arriving I received a WeChat message from our contact for one of our producers, Cathleen. “I saw you are in China now, why don’t you visit Run East?” At that moment the Run East factory in Guang Dong Province was still some 900 kilometers away. Nonetheless, I decided my next destination would be the factory. Taking a fast G-train got me to Shenzhen in half a day.

Cathleen and general manger Zhu FuLin kindly picked me up at the train station in Shenzhen and drove me to Qishi town (企石镇) and the factory. Plastic injection machines can easily be bought on the market anywhere in the world. Making the actual moulds (‘molds’ in American English) for the injection machines is highly skilled work. China is one of the few countries where skills to do the tooling, relatively cheap labor and the plastic injection facilities come together. To produce a highly detailed train model in 1/87 scale, you need precision moulding, which is quite different from making a mould for the production of, let’s say, packaging.

Ground floor: mould storage, mould making (‘tooling’) and plastic injection

The moulds, archived for later use, like reruns.

A computer numerical control or CNC machine mills the mould from a slab of aluminium.

The actual mould.

After the CNC-drilling the mould is undergoing more work to make it ready for the injection moulding machine. For detailed projects like ours extra steps of engraving is usually needed. The tooling for injection moulding is expensive.. For this reason you need to be able to sell high numbers to keep the end consumer price affordable and the profit margin for each party reasonable. Because of rising wages in China and the recent trade war between the USA and China (possibly affecting our business indirectly at the moment), this is an increasingly difficult balancing act.

The injection moulding machines

Making the plastic spruces is a relatively quick and easy step in the process once the tooling is done. Not so long ago, next to each machine an employee took the plastic sprue out of the machine. Now each plastic injection machine has a brand new robot arm to take the sprue out of the machine.

First floor: spraying and painting

The painting process is also made more efficient. The shift from manual labour to robot arms is underway. One-colour tampon machines are being replaced by four-colour tampon machines. These steps are necessary to remain competitive. Price matters. Our customers are only willing to pay a certain price for our products.

A new robot arm being tested to replace workers spraying the models.

Tampon printing machine with four colours

Against the wall are tampon machines for one colour. They will be replaced by machines which can do four colours each. This saves on operators.

Some of the fine detailing cannot be done by machine at the moment. Some parts can only be reached by a fine brush.

Second floor: assembly and testing

The assembly floor was relatively quiet. If the model is motorised, the final stage is building in the pcb (printed circuit board) and electric motor, soldering the wires and testing the functions.

Office floor

One floor was dedicated to office space. The office of general manager Zhu has a dedicated tea table. When I expressed my interest in Chinese tea I was gifted an enormous amount of various teas, including a ripe pu’er cake from 2008. The office floor had a Taoist type of altar with what seems Guan Gong（关公) as deity. Guan Gong means ‘Lord Guan’ and is in fact Guan Yu a general in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Guan Yu is worshipped as a bodhisattva in Buddhist tradition and as a guardian deity in Chinese folk religion and Taoism.

I noticed Zhu’s office had more Taoist and folk symbolism, like a glass piece of a variety of Chinese cabbage called ‘bok choy’ (which is a Cantonese name, in The Netherlands we know this vegetable as paksoi). Cabbage 菜 (cài) has a lucky connotation because phonetically 财 cái also means ‘wealth, money’.

After the factory visit I was invited for hot pot, 火锅 (lit. fire pot), in a local restaurant in Qishi town. The fire pot was a yin-yang style of pot with a vegetable broth for stewing mushrooms and vegetables on one side, and a fierce broth (a big chunk of palm oil was dissolved into the broth) for cooking meat on the other side.

A Run East branded bottle of ‘Chinese wine’ was opened on my behalf, which actually fell into the category baijiu, a distilled drink much stronger than wine. I loved the hot pot. Plenty of tripe, blood cake, spicy condiments and small glasses of baijiu, which you definitely don’t drink alone. Zhu brought a dedicated driver so he could drink with me.

Wuyi tea factory

Joy, the owner of the guesthouse, invited me to visit a tea factory owned by her family, located a short 20-minute drive from the city. It was a lovely evening. She showed me the whole process of oolong tea making, or at least the 24 hours after harvesting the tea leaves, and we picked wild strawberries.

Step 1: sun drying

After the harvest the leaves are spread out so dew or other moist can evaporate. In the sun at midday this proces takes about 10 minutes, in the evening a bit longer. Good quality oolong cannot be harvested by machine. During harvest the first three leaves are picked, excluding the bud.

Step 2: oxidizing the tea leaves

Oolong is semi-oxidised tea, therefor the leaves are oxidised by putting them in a big rotating metal drum. Hot air is blown into the drum. Now and then the drums are opened and the leaves are tossed around by hand. This proces takes many hours until the desired oxidation level is reached. I was also allowed to put my arm in and toss the leaves. The leaves smelled floral, like breathing in hot air saturated with moist and freshly cut grass.

Step 3: fixing the tea leaves

The machine below exposes the tea leaves to high heat which stops the oxidation proces. This fixes the tea leaves. It basically deactivates the enzymes in the leaves preventing further oxidation.

Step 4: rolling the leaves

When the leaves are fixed they are rolled. For the best quality batches this is done by hand, but normally the rolling is done by the machine below. Wuyi oolong is rolled for a shorter time than Anxi oolong, which is rolled until the tea leaves resemble small balls.

Step 5: further drying and removing stalks and impurities

The belt dryer further removes moist and impurities like stalks can be sorted out. After that the leaves are tossed in big bamboo baskets for removing stalks and further drying.

Step 6: roasting the tea

This proces takes place within 24 hours after the harvest. For Wuyi oolong this is only the beginning of the process. A tea master will roast the oolong over smokeless bamboo charcoal and repeat that process several times depending on the desired taste profile. It can take half a year before the tea can be sold, sometimes a year or even more.

The room below stored old bamboo drums for oxidising the leaves - they have been replaced by metal drums - and flat bamboo baskets for sun drying and hand shaking the leaves. Hand shaking nowadays is only done for very small batches of high quality leaves. This part of the tea processing is really men’s work. Joy couldn’t contain her laughter while demonstrating handling the baskets. The baskets were indeed quite big for her.

Picking wild strawberries. I was wearing my ‘city’ shoes and had trouble climbing up the muddy steep slopes to pick the berries. It’s great fun though.

Tea room

The tea room at the tea factory was peaceful. The room was dedicated to tea drinking and the window looked out over the tea fields. I live in a two room apartment in the city center of Amsterdam but have been dreaming about a room like this for more than a decade. A room without distractions. I shouldn’t complain though, I have a roof over my head.

An oolong called ‘Buddha’s hand’. This tea was supposed to smell of pears but Joy couldn’t recognise pear and neither could I.

View from the tea room.

I’m I stayed at the factory until nightfall, so the family invited me to eat. This was not your average Chinese restaurant food. Sixteen dishes were prepared, many made from vegetables but there was also fried pork, a fish stew, and fried peanuts. Most dishes were spiced with hot chillis and the flavours were much stronger than I ever tasted. I thought it was brilliant.

Mount Wuyi

My first destination after Hangzhou and West Lake was Wuyi-shan, or: Wuyi Mountains, another area listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for cultural, scenic, and biodiversity values. I blasted towards Wuyishan Shi (city) on a fast G-train via Fuzhou (福州市) in Fujian Province. Wuyishan Shi proved to be another city with electric scooters, electric buses and separated bicycle lanes. A pleasant and clean city.

I am fascinated by city planning and traffic. Possibly because Amsterdam is such a bicycle friendly city and a worldwide example. Still, Amsterdam never went as far as to abolish all motorised scooters in favour for electric scooters.

I booked a room at the Wuyishan Zaijia Guesthouse near the city centre. In the lobby of the hotel was a tea table. I was invited for tea tasting, and I was not alone, there was also a group of Russian travellers interested in, and knowledgable about, Chinese tea. The owner, her English name is Joy, turned out to be from a tea producers family. Chinese who interact with foreigners usually adopt an English name to make communication easier, hence the name Joy.

I spent close to three hours slurping tea. I asked Joy to reserve some hand rolled Wuyi oolong for me to buy. On the last day of my stay Joy packed my tea, 50 grams of each. These teas are expensive at roughly € 1000 per kilo. One is marked Keng Jian Rou Gui from 2018, Rou Gui 肉桂 (cassia/cinnamon) is a cultivar, Keng Jian is possibly a geographical area. The other tea I bought is Lao Cong Shui Xian (老欉水仙茶) from 2018: a Shui Xian cultivar made from old bushes that may be as old as 200 years. The taste and appearance will signify it as an even darker Oolong. The Lao Cong Shui Xian was significantly more expensive at ￥3500 per 500 gram.

I also tasted a Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, also called Lapsang souchong, which is a smoked black tea from Wuyishan. Smoking the leaves over pine wood greatly enhances the flavour. The tea smelled exactly like a complex Scottish peat whiskey, which makes sense since the damp malt, the barley grain, is smoked as well. It was hard to believe tea could smell so intens. She only had a small batch for private use and didn’t want to sell this tea. It probably would have been too expensive anyway.

Three kinds of Wuyi oolong tea, two hand rolled (left) and one machine rolled.

National Park Mount Wuyi

On the second day I hiked in the National Park Mount Wuyi. I entered through the East Gate where you have to buy an entrance ticket and an additional ticket to take the shuttle buses in the park. Despite the light rain I choose to walk. First stop was the Water Curtain Cave (水帘洞), which is more a waterfall than a cave. The cave played an important part in the development of neo-Confucianism.

The Hall of Three Sages. One of the sages is Zhu Xi, famous for his - at that time unorthodox- commentaries on the Four Books.

Da Hong Pao

From the Water Curtain Cave I took the hiking path to Da Hong Pao (大红袍, literally "Big Red Robe") valley. In this valley, surrounded by steep rocks, you can find some of the most expensive tea bushes of China. There is no specific Da Hong Pao cultivar, the name “Big Red Robe” refers to the legend in which the mother of a Ming dynasty emperor was cured of an illness by the tea of these bushes.

On a secret mission in 1849 British botanist Robert Fortune acquired seeds from the Da Hong Pao bushes. Britain at the time had a great trade deficit with China, and a thirst for tea. When the emperor banned opium, the trade deficit became even bigger. After the first Opium War Fortune was sent on his espionage mission, which was not entirely successful. Most seedlings perished but he brought over technology and knowledge, which helped the Indian tea industry.

The original 300 year old tea bushes are still growing on Tianxin Yongle temple land, most agree there are just 6 bushes. These bushes have not been harvested after 2005. In 2002, a wealthy purchaser paid ￥180,000 for just 20 gram of Da Hong Pao tea from those ancient bushes. The original bushes are said to be of Qi Dan (奇丹) cultivar and this cultivar has since been propagated. However there are few Qi Dan tea bushes so true Da Hong Pao is hard to find. Blends of different cultivars are usually used to make Da Hong Pao.

The tea harvest from the valley is transported by foot.

You will find many shrines in Wuyishan tucked away in cave-like small buildings.

Related post: Wuyi tea factory

Temple of the Soul's Retreat

An Indian Buddhist monk and pilgrim, named Huili in Chinese, travelled to Hangzhou in 326 AD. Huili founded Lingyin Temple, which can be translated as Temple of the Soul's Retreat or Temple of Inspired Seclusion. At that time Buddhism in China attracted a relatively small number of followers and early Lingyin Temple was pretty secluded. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589AD) Buddhism was on the rise. Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty (504 AD), ordered that people should "abandon Taoism and return to Buddhism", but during the following dynasties Buddhism fell in and out of favour many times, and Lingyin Temple declined and prospered along with the mood of the times.

In modern times Lingyin Temple survived the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) after former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) suggested "temporary closure of Lingyin Temple" to protect the temple. While a surprising number of buildings in the temple complex are modern, the history can be traced back more than 1680 years.

The whole temple compound is large. I strolled around the various buildings in almost 5 hours.

Feilai Feng, or "the Peak that Flew Hither", is said to have inspired Huili to settle in this place. The craggy peaks reminded Huili of a mountain in India. Many statues are carved into the limestone rock over the course of many centuries.

The Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings is the former entrance to Lingyin Temple. In the photo are the eastern King Dhṛtarāṣṭra (持國天王) with the four-stringed Chinese musical instrument and the southern King Virūḍhaka (增長天王).

Below: Guanyin, a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, with relief screen, at the back of the Grand Hall of the Great Sage.

Some, but not all, Buddhist schools advocate vegetarianism. In practice monks and nuns are expected to abstain from meat. Lingyin Temple has a vegetarian restaurant although there was some confusion on my part if I found the right restaurant, since there was also chicken on the menu. I ordered a vegetarian noodle soup, fresh bamboo shoots with preserved vegetables and a simple version of Buddha's delight without soy sauce.

Longjing tea 龍井茶

Almost 15 years ago I bought Longjin tea online from China. Since then, for me, the name Longjin (lit: Dragon Well) is synonymous with Chinese green tea. But what do you get if you buy Longjing? Many teas are sold under the name Longjing. They might be from a completely different area. Authentic Longjing tea comes from the Zhejiang Province, which is still a vast area. Stricter definitions confine the tea to Xihu District, Hangzhou.

I took a taxi to Longjing village, in the middle of Xihu District. The buds are picked in March and April, before Qingming Festival, which falls on the 15th day from the Spring Equinox in the first week of April. I arrived a few weeks after the first harvest and many tea growers were pruning the tea bushes with motorised hedge trimmers. It was noisy and decaying, brown leaves were everywhere.

I wandered about until I got to Hugongmiao Temple (胡公庙). Inside the temple area there is a tea house, where you can buy expensive tea ware and, of course, Longjing tea. I ordered one glass of Longjing tea at ¥ 98. While I contemplated my € 13 tea, it sunk in I had just arrived in China. On my first day I already made a long wish come true. The veranda of the tea house was quiet and peaceful. The pale yellow tea leaves were dancing in the water and slowly sinking to the bottom. Life was good for a moment.

There are many legends surrounding Longjing tea. Qianlong Emperor (Reign: 1733–1735) is said to have visited West Lake during one of his holidays. He went to Hu Gong Temple and was presented with a cup of Longjing tea. In front of the Hu Gong Temple were 18 tea bushes. The Qianlong Emperor was so impressed by the Longjing tea produced here that he conferred these 18 tea bushes special imperial status. The 18 tea bushes are still there, although I am sceptical of that claim, to put it mildly.

The 18 imperial tea bushes.

Qianlong Emperor (25 September 1711 – 7 February 1799)

Longjing Village

Recognising Longjing is quite easy, knowing exactly what you are looking at is very complicated, or nearly impossible. Several different varietals are growing in the region. Longjing Qunti, which is referred to by locals as lao shu, or ‘old tree varietal’, is the same varietal Emperor Qianlong would have tasted. A second varietal is called Longjing #43, or locally xin shu, ‘new tree varietal’, which was introduced later to yield small, perfect, early buds. Longjing #43 also buds earlier, which will yield a much higher price for the tea. The very first Longjing of the year is sold at inflated prices. However, it is easy to sell #43 varietal and claim the small buds are a sign of early picked leaves, while they are not. You can end up paying too much for your Longjing tea leaves because it is difficult to tell if they were indeed picked in Xihu District, at which elevation and at which date, 'pre-qingming' (清明前) or not. Many resellers don’t even know. I bought 50 grams Longjing in Longjing Village in what looked like a reliable shop for ¥ 200, which is at least the right price for the real deal.

Pan-firing Longjing tea leaves. Leaves are hand roasted for 15 minutes immediately after picking to prevent oxidisation. After cooling down and the final selection, the leaves are pan-fried one more time before packaging. Shared under: GNU General Public License.

Hangzhou and West Lake 西湖

It was pure coincidence the destination on my plane ticket said HGH (Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport). The proximity of Longjing tea village tipped me over when I was searching for KLM destinations in China. And there I was: Hangzhou, home to nearly 7 million people, including the metropolitan area maybe as much as 21 million. I booked a hotel at walking distance of the West Lake. I had no idea what to expect.

The West Lake of Hangzhou is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List because it “has influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries and bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of vistas reflecting an idealised fusion between humans and nature” [1].

The lake has been shaped by many dynasties over the course of more than 2000 years. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-979) was particular important in the development history of the city and its lake. Much of the development of West Lake has been driven by tourism, especially domestic tourism. I spent four nights in Hangzhou but only after returning home, I realised you could spend a week exploring the lake and its surroundings.

Ten Scenes of West Lake

You need a lifetime for the “Ten Scenes of West Lake”, each characterised by a four-character epithet, like Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon (三潭印月) and Two Peaks Piercing the Clouds (雙峰插雲). The Ten Scenes were formed during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) and are viewpoints from which a characteristic of the lake will show itself to the viewer. Many scenes are dependent on the time of year: Autumn Moon on Calm Lake (平湖秋月) and Melting Snow on the Broken Bridge (断桥残雪) might not evoke the same feeling on a hot summer day.

Property Area and Buffer Zone as proposed by UNESCO.

Hangzhou 杭州

In China they say the lake is more mysterious when it is raining. I was lucky. The day of my arrival in China it was raining in Hangzhou. The hidden sun was almost setting. I jumped on one of the tourist boats for a short trip around the lake. At that moment I didn’t quite grasp the meaning of it all. Casually viewed, West Lake is just an ordinary lake. It is the people who make this lake magical.

At night the lake really comes alive with colourful dragon boats, a fountain show and coloured spotlights illuminating the trees. If you are in a contemplative mood, you’d better not visit the lake on the Eastside. At night police has to regulate the large crowds.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group has one of its headquarters in Hangzhou, co-founder Jack Ma was born in Hangzhou. Emerging technologies and people pour into the city, making Hangzhou liveable, rich and crowded.

View of Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon (三潭印月) from a boat.

Fleeting ink

Ground writing or ‘dishu’ 地书 became popular in Beijing in the 1980s. The practice has spread to public parks all over China, including the lakeside area of West Lake. Dutch researcher Laura Vermeeren is writing a PhD thesis on Contemporary Practices of Calligraphy in Beijing. Evaporating Ennui — Water Calligraphy in Beijing. It is fascinating to watch these men painstakingly writing these characters with fleeting ink. Too much sun and the characters will evaporate, and just a little rain will wash away lines of poetry, never to return.

Hangzhou kitchen

Lou Wai Lou/楼外楼, Location: No. 30, Gushan Road, Xihu District (close to Moon over the Peaceful Lake)

The Hangzhou kitchen might not be very well known, it is very distinctive. Once you know what to look for, you will recognise it. On the first night I had West Lake Fish in Sugar-Vinegar sauce (西湖醋鱼) in a restaurant in the city. On the second night I went to Lou Wai Lou on Gushan Road. This famous restaurant was founded in the 19th century. It hardly caters for solo-guests, so I had trouble finding something affordable on the menu. In the end I ordered a West lake water-shield soup (西湖莼菜汤) with a few shrimp floating in it. Water-shield is also knows as Brasenia and is an aquatic plant with floating leaves. The second dish was “Dong Po” braised pork (东坡肉), an incredibly soft piece of pork, which melted on my tongue.

Other famous Hangzhou dishes are Fried Shrimps with Long Jing Tea (龙井虾仁) and Beggars’ Chicken (叫花童子鸡).

West lake water-shield soup 西湖莼菜汤

Dongpo Pork 东坡肉

Rental bikes are very popular all over China and also in Hangzhou. Furthermore, all scooters in Hangzhou are electric, as well most city buses and taxis’s. This makes Hangzhou a quiet and clean city.

Then there is always street food at the night market, These skewers are chucked into boiling water and served with a pungent spicy sauce..

More on the the West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou:

• Longjing tea 龍井茶

• Temple of the Soul’s Retreat

Harzreise im Winter

Some journeys you regret on the very first day and it doesn’t get any better on the second or even last day. My ‘Silvester 2018’ trip was such a journey. The Harz is a beautiful nordic mountain range, with an exposed cold and windy summit, large pine forests, deep gorges, romantic restaurants, and - even though most Grimm Brothers’ fairytales were not exactly from the Harz - it is easy to imagine they were once passed on from generation to generation in the deep forests.

I came looking for Waldeinsamkeit - a key concept in German romanticism - but within the romantic framework it is seen as a positive feeling. I just felt loneliness. For three straight days I was haunted by the memory of long lost loves. Maybe I should have avoided people at all, like a hermit. The moment I wandered off path, for a picnic among the pine trees I felt sort of okay, munching on a piece of dried Hirsch (deer meat) and making hot drip coffee for myself. Seeing other people reminded me too much of being single.

Der Gipfel des Nordens

On the first day I hiked from Drei Annen Hohne to the Brocken and back again. A day trip considering the short days of December. At 1142 meters the Brocken is not very high, but being at a latitude relatively close to the North Pole, the climate is brutal. The average temperature on the summit is comparable to the 1600 to 2200 meter zone in Iceland. You can hike up to the Brocken in fair weather only to see the weather change dramatically in the last half an hour before reaching the summit. Most of the year there will be no view at all. The Brocken is hidden in mist for 306 days a year on average. To add to the mystery: between 1961 and 1990 the mountain was a military zone in the former GDR and could not be visited at all.

Blocksberg

In connection with the Brocken witches the mountain is named Blocksberg. As early as 1485 the Brocken was referred to as “Blokkesberghe”, but despite the documented (and very real) 15th to 17th century witch-hunts, the Brocken witches are in essence a modern 19th century fantasy. The first organised Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken dates back to 1896, with only male guests attending. It was really the early 20th century tourist industry, which promoted Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken.

Iced summit of the Brocken. On December 30 it was even too cold for witches. But because of the holidays the tourists did come, in large numbers. I just pointed my camera the other way.

Undated postcard celebrating Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken.

Many pine trees in the Harz are dying because of the bark beetle (Borkenkäfer). While dead pine trees are a sorry sight, it is also a sign that the forests are not diverse enough. In the Harz pine trees have been planted by man for many centuries. The trees were a valuable source of timber. As early as the 15th century the bark beetle caused mass mortality of pine trees. When pine trees die, pioneering broad-leaved trees will take their place.

#nurliebe (only love)

Lunch with local Harzer Käse (not to be confused with Harzkäse) and Schmorwurst.

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Teufels Brücke

On my second day I hiked the Bodetal from Thale to Treseburg (population 92) and back. When crossing the Teufels Brücke I would have easily sold my soul in blood in return for love, if I had encountered Mephisto, or even a black poodle. The bridge leads to a ten kilometre long gorge with no escape until Treseburg. Despite my negative feelings on this trip I will certainly find my way back to the Harz. I have a special place in my heart for this ancient mountain range.

Faust und Mephisto im Kerker, 1848. Joseph Fay (1812-1875).

Bodetal (Bode Gorge) home to the wildcat.

In winter you have to ignore the “Achtung Lebensgefahr!”-signs.

Hauseigener Glühwein. With drinking too many glasses of this hot and sweet mulled wine the fate of New Year’s Eve 2018 was sealed. I went to bed in my hotel at 7 pm with a spinning head. It is starting to feel like a tradition; missing all New Year’s Eve festivities. Better luck in 2019.

Pictures of Iceland

A miscellaneous collection of photos, which didn’t fit anywhere else.

The strange reason I ended up in Iceland. In October the company I work for shipped a pallet with goods from Amsterdam to Chicago (ORD) with Icelandair Cargo via Liege (LGG) and KEF. The pallet never arrived at its intended destination in ORD. To make sure the shipment was not lost in Iceland I called Icelandair Cargo in KEF and asked for an investigation. In the above security camera image you can see our pallet with 12 boxes arriving from LGG in KEF. The next image I received shows our shipment leaving KEF for its flight to ORD aboard an Icelandair passenger plane. It convinced me our shipment had been lost in the USA. Since the girl on the phone in Iceland was really friendly, I ended up buying a ticket with Icelandair to KEF for a short holiday.

Church with graveyard near Hveragerði.

The graveyard near Hveragerði close-up.

Sheep heads in a supermarket in Hveragerði. Unfortunately restaurant Myrin Mathus in Reykjavík was closed due to renovation. This was the closest I got to eating Svið.

In winter the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration closes many roads if they are deemed unsafe. You can drive past the sign, but then your car insurance will be void.

Snow mobile tour operator Mountaineers of Iceland operates a fleet of specially modified buses to reach glaciers and other remote locations.

Tourist centre near waterfall Gullfoss. I love how the architecture blends with the landscape.

Hvalfjörður, meaning: whale-fjord, before sunrise. In Hvalfjörður the only remaining whaling station of Iceland is located.

Santa Clauses in fishing town Akranes. There is always one who doesn’t fit in.

House in Akranes

I really liked driving this 2018 Suzuki Vitara all grip, which is the 4x4 version.

Close to nothing

Only on my flight back to Amsterdam I was able to put the Icelandic landscape in some sort of context when I watched the documentary Horizon (original title: Sjóndeildarhringur) about Icelandic painter Georg Guðni (1961 - 2011). Coming of age in the rebellious punk scene of the 80s in 1983 Georg Guðni suddenly turned his attention to the Icelandic landscape, at first painting particular mountains but soon painting non-particular mountains and horizons. He put quite some thought into the act of looking itself.

“The spectacular has never inspired me. I am much more inspired by all that is in between. When you are driving to some spectacular destination. There is so much on the way that simply does not catch your eye. The scenery that passes by your window, which means nothing to you. This is what inspires me.”

— Georg Guðni

Landscape near the waterfall Gullfoss.

“In regard to the horizon, it is the nothing that is in between, and it is this nothing that you look at when you forget that you are looking out of the window. You are not looking. You are just thinking. You search for something to see, but you don’t see anything.”

— Georg Guðni

Untitled, 2002

His death is never mentioned in the documentary, but it seems that he took his own life at 50. The male suicide rate in Iceland is high (21,7 per 100.000 people) compared to the female suicide rate (4,7).

The book Strange Familiar - The Work of Georg Gudni was published by Perceval Press (2005), ISBN 0-9747078-9-9.

Condensed water vapour of the geyser Strokkur.

Vulcano Katla and beyond

On my fifth day in Iceland I ventured out towards the south part of the island. First stop was the village Vík í Mýrdal just below the volcano Katla. This volcano is very active. Twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 20–80 years. Many times an eruption of the smaller volcano Eyjafjallajökull was followed by an eruption of Katla. Eyjafjallajökull last erupted in 2010 resulting in air-traffic shut-down in parts of Canada and all of Europe including Ukraine and Belarus. Katla is a ticking time bomb. The Vulcano is also one of the largest volcanic sources of carbon-dioxide (CO2) on Earth, accounting for up to 4% of total global volcanic carbon-dioxide emissions. When Katla erupts the glacier covering the Vulcano will melt causing floods, which will probably destroy the village Vík.

Vík has a population of 318 and a beautiful black beach. The stones are actually grey but when wet become shiny and black. The day was very cloudy and rainy so I couldn’t get a view of the volcano.

The eruption of Katla in 1918 lasted for 24 days. The eruption resulted in extending the southern coast by 5 km due to a mudflow. Since then the sea has reclaimed the land and is even threatening the village. A newly built breaker halts the process.

Lamb stew at a gas station in Vík

It was still early enough to drive on. In theory I could just reach Vatnajökull, a glacier covering 9% of Iceland, and its glacial lagoon. It was still another 2,5 hours and it meant I had to drive the whole distance back in the dark. I could always try to find a hotel I thought, although a quick Booking.com search learned that the cheapest option would cost almost a hundred euro. Still, I drove on, through a large very empty plain. The weather didn’t improve. There was no view whatsoever and the weather forecast for the next day was even worse. On a 150 kilometre stretch the only interesting bit was a pile of rocks where there used to be a house, but they are not really sure if there really was a house. Travellers pile rocks on each other for good luck and the government made a parking space and an information sign.

I never reached Vatnajökull and the beautiful glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón. I reckoned that the time I would reach Jökulsárlón it was practically dark and due to the weather I wouldn’t see much anyway. The whole endeavour also was a waste of money since the Suzuki was thirsty. In the middle of nowhere I made a U-turn and drove back to Reykjavík.

Expression of the Icelandic landscape in pottery by Glit Pottery (1958-1971). From 1972 the company operated at Höfth instead of Reyklavík. Pieces of lava are incorporated in the clay before glazing.

Snæfellsnes

In Voyage au centre de la terre by Jules Verne, Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel start the journey to the center of the earth in the crater of the jökull of Snæfell after deciphering a coded note written in runic script:

“Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches (lit: tastes) before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm”

My journey to Snæfellsnes was somewhat less adventurous. For a start I had a very comfortable Suzuki Vitara 4x4 to my disposal. Still, Snæfellsnes is a really deserted place. I first drove to Borgarnes for a stopover and black coffee, but it was still dark when I reached Borgarnes. The live traffic service of my TomTom navigation showed many exclamation marks (!!!!!!) along the way, but I decided to ignore those. I entered Hellnar as a destination since it has a restaurant. Or so I thought.

At a gas station I learned that a big storm was going to hit Iceland around coffee time. “What time is that?”, I had to ask. “Around 4 o’clock”, I learned. The Road and Coastal Administration (IRCA) advised to avoid driving after that time. Suddenly I had a time schedule.

After driving for more than 5 hours since I left Reykjavík I found the only restaurant in Hellnar closed. Not many people visit Hellnar in wintertime and for good reasons. Hellnar is not much more than a small church, the closed hotel-restaurant and a few scattered buildings. In 1703 there were 194 people registered as inhabitants of Hellnar. Since then the village has declined, no more fish is being landed here. But it is the gateway to Snæfellsjökull National Park. Since I was getting really hungry I had little choice than to keep on driving, trough the park to Ólafsvík, the nearest village, boasting a population of 1.010.

The church of Hellnar built in 1945 on the site of an older church.

Hellnar

Harbour of Ólafsvík.

Fresh cod in SKER Restaurant, Ólafsvík. Nice touch were thin slices of cauliflower marinated in vinegar.

Svarta Kaffi

Amazingly we know exactly when coffee arrived in Iceland. Coffee arrived precisely on November 16, 1703, “when Árni Magnússon – a scholar and collector of many highly valuable Nordic manuscripts – acquired a quarter of a pound of coffee from a friend.” By the mid-19th century, drinking coffee had become a daily habit. When driving in Iceland I stopped at every gas station for a cup of black coffee - or in practice every hour or so. The last hour and a half before arriving back in Reykjavik the storm hit the island, heavily. My speed dropped from 90 to 30 kilometres per hour so the car wasn’t blown off the road. The round trip from Reykjavík took me 10 hours.

Harnessing geothermal energy at Friðheimar

It is not easy to grow fruit and vegetables in Iceland. Fruit is readily available but is mostly flown in by Icelandair Cargo on a daily cargo flight from Liege in Belgium, which is also close enough to The Netherlands. The couple Knútur and Helena are growing tomatoes all year round near Selfoss in a farm called Friðheimar. A borehole 200 meters from the greenhouses provides water at about 95°C. To make most of the light, which is needed in wintertime to grow the tomatoes, the restaurant is located right in one of the greenhouses. It makes a very welcome moment in the dark moments of the day. For the price of the tomato soup you can serve yourself as many times you like, even the coffee is free if you order the soup. Dutch bees are pollinating the plants. It was one of the strangest restaurants I have eaten in. Perfect cure for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) though!

Icelandair Þingvellir

Ready for takeoff in the Þingvellir, a special livery “100-year anniversary of Icelandic National Sovereignty” Boeing 757-200. 

Once ruled by the House of Medici

Just below the Campo Imperatore there are several beautiful medieval hill towns: Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Castel del Monte, Calascio and the mountaintop fortress Rocca Calascio are the most interesting.

I spent time just hanging out in these villages, drinking coffee, speaking to cats and reading news on my iPhone.

The area was shaped by transhumance. Local animal products were sought after during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Carfagna sheep wool was transported to Florence and mainly used to produce military uniforms and monks' cowls. The villages lost importance during the 19th century. Once ruled by the House of Medici, Santo Stefano di Sessanio counted 3.000 people in 1870. In 2005 there were only 80. 

Porta Medicea, branded with the coat of arms of the House of Medici.

Favola di Venezia (Hugo Pratt, 1976). Corto Maltese speaks to the street cats.

The small pleasures of life in Italy: un caffè in the town square.

Rocca Calascio. The fortress was destroyed by an earthquake in 1461 and never rebuilt.

There is no denying the villages are in bad shape due to earthquakes and neglect.

The distance between the hill towns can be easily cycled, with lots of climbing and fast downhills.

Mosaic on a wall in Castel del Monte. It is hard not to imagine this mosaic was inspired by te earthquake of 2009. Castel del Monte is the principal location of The American directed by Anton Corbijn. The film's central character played by George Clooney, takes refuge in Castel Del Monte hoping to escape from his past.

Movie still from The American (2010), Anton Corbijn.