Simao is the centre of the tea industry in China and I wanted to visit a tea tasting and a tea mountain. The tea is grown on mountainsides in terraced fields so that the sun can reach every plant. However I was unable to find any travel bureau or even tourist information on the tea culture. So I walked into the FITTourist distribution company on the chance they might have tours to the tea fields. It was Sunday, but 4 people were in the office. When the girl at the counter finally understood what I was asking for she called in 2 other employees and they unlocked the display room so I could have a tea tasting and buy some tea. Then she offered to set up a tour that afternoon and I accepted. I found Joan and we returned to the company. We were served tea while the girl set up our tour. Then 2 young girls showed up to accompany us. They are 21-yeard old students studying English here in Simao. They were to be our translators. We were then driven to a tea factory where the manager showed up while we were doing another tea tasting. The manager packed Joan and I and the 2 students into her car and we were off to visit the tea mountain. It was a wonderful afternoon. The students were very nervous at first but they did a great job translating and the teashop manager was a very knowledgeable girl. She took us through the fields and explained the workings of the tea process. It was everything I had hoped for, but when they dropped us off at our hotel they refused any payment. They had just spent 4 hours showing us around and they wished us a happy visit to China. Wow!
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