On April 18, the instant we all stepped out of the plane and felt the heat and moisture in the air, it was obvious that the next few days would be spent in a much different climate from the region we had just left. Xishuangbanna is one of the sixteen prefecture-level divisions of Yunnan and home to many minorities, such as Dai, Hani, and Wa. We met up with three people who would be with us during our time spent in Yunnan: a driver, who would drive us everywhere we needed to go; a man who was in the tea business; and a woman who owned a farm where she grew many different crops, including tea. Tao told us that he could not understand our guides when they spoke in their native dialect (which sounded similar to vietnamese to my ear). We all enjoyed the sights of urban Xishuangbanna during the drive to a small tea plantation in a rural area of the city.

  

On the night of April 16th, we arrived at the hotel that is part of the Jiangnan Tea Culture Museum on the east mountain of Dong Ting, Jiangsu Province, where we would stay for one night. The Bi Luo Chun from Dong Shan ("East Mountain") is considered the best, probably due to the optimum amounts of sunshine and humidity. The hotel itself was very majestic and the outdoor property was vast and elaborately adorned with exotic trees, stone pathways, and bridges over small rivers.

The Tao Tea Leaf 2011 Tea Tour took place during April 14 to April 30. The participants involved were: Tao Wu, founder of Tao Tea Leaf and leader of the tea tour; Bill Kamula, chef instructor at George Brown College responsible for teaching the Tea Sommelier course; Matthew Wocks, a Toronto based photographer (http://flimnit.com); and Tim Johns, chief software designer at Icewire Technologies and webmaster of Tao Tea Leaf.

On April 14, we all arrived and met up in Shanghai, where we had a delightful dinner followed by a memorable walk along Nanjing Road and The Bund.

In April 2011, Tao, founder of Tao Tea Leaf, is planning to bring a small group (at most 3 people) with him to China for a wonderful tea tour. The tour only has two more spaces available, so if you plan on joining, please register as soon as you can. During the tour, the group will visit tea gardens of pu-er tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, and green tea. The food will be great and the scenery will be breathtaking, resembling something out of National Geographic. The tour will begin when all guests meet in Shanghai on April 14th and end on April 30th.