What's not to love about Xishuangbanna? From dazzling night markets to lush bamboo forests, 800 year old tea trees to close encounters with elephants, this tropical city in southwest China has everything, and is where the story of tea begins. Join Foodwise for all the Pu'er tea you can drink and feast on everything from banana flowers to "elephant food"!
Come get soaked at the Dai people's New Year celebrations! We'll check out buzzing street markets packed with barbecued meats and spicy fruits, crash a foodie auction, and even take part in a rowdy compatition, catching fish with our bare hands in the river. All this before hiking through an actual rainforest. We're going to need all the good tea and food we can get!
Tianran and Hannah climb Mount Huangshan, one of China's most famous mountains, sampling its delicate green tea and the rich flavors of Anhui cuisine, and explore the regions's ancient villages and lush bamboo forests featured in the blockbuster film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
In Huangshan, Anhui Province, the hosts enjoy a cup of Queen Elizabeth II's favorite tea, as well as the oldest tea to be exported Europe, and get hands on with quirky local delicacies ranging from "word candy" and tofu made of leaves, to the downright funky flavors of hairy tofu and stinky mandarin fish.
The hosts are in Funding, Fujian Province in southeast China for the Dragon Boat Festival, where teams of rowers compete against each other in narrow dragon-shaped boats. From making and eating zongzi rice dumplings to trying local street food, the hosts take part in the festivities before exploring the world of white tea, from visiting its "mother tree" to drinking it in zen temple, and even feasting on a white tea banquet!
The hosts are in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province, the birthplace of oolong tea. Here they enjoy tea ceremony on a bamboo raft, feast on everything from smoked goose to lotus seed soup, and explore an ancient town that once sold tea to Russia. They discover that here it's all about terroir, and that nestled within the cliffs of the Wuyi Mountains is the most expensive tea in the world.
In this episode Tianran and Hannah are in Hangzhou, a city with over 2000 years of history and capital of two ancicent Chinese dynasties. From the famous West Lake to delicate Dragon Well tea, our hosts experience Hangzhou's must-do attractions, savouring the local cuisine and trying everything from winter melon shaped like pork belly, to food cooked according to Traditional Chinese Medicine principles, and even Buddhist noodles and Zen tea.
In this episode, Tianran and Hannah continue their tea-tasting journey along Hangzhou's Qiantang River, exploring the region's historical culture and culinary delights. They head to Anding Mountain, enjoying misty tea at summit. In Longmen Ancient Town, they dive into Traditional Chinese clan culture and savor "Sun Quan seitan". In the gentrified village of Shishe, Hannah falls in love with "gray soup rice dumplings", while at Qiandao Lake Tianran tries the best fish head and beluga caviar he's ever had in his life. Their journey ends with a cup of Jiukeng tea and a visit to ancient tea trees.
Tiaran and Hannah are in Shantou, Guangdong Province in south China, where they drink more tea than anywhere else in the country. They'll savor the complex aroma of the curiosly named "Duck Poo Fragrance" tea, as well as enjoy a more traditional "yum cha" breakfast. They get a taste of traditional handicrafts, from breaking bowls to make inlaid porcelain to rolling "kueh" rice cakes, and feast on everything from sweet and savory street snacks to the finest seafood dining.
Tianran and Hannah are in the picturesque city of Shaoguan in Guangdong Province, South China. They try tea grown on Danxia landforms and feast on mountain produce, before getting hands-on with making rice noodles in a Hakka walled village. They learn about the Hakka people's southward migration and the effect it had on local tea and food, and end their journey in a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple, seeing how the monks integrate their practice into everyday life, and discovering just why tea is so important to Zen.