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Hailuogou Glacier Park Part I

12/29/2019

Hailougou Glacier Park is located in Luding County, Sichuan Province. It has a high altitude so it's important to take things slowly.

We arrive on the glacial mountain via cable car. Although the most beautiful time of year is in the winter, the glacial melt in the summer causes a beautiful rush of waterfalls on the mountain.

We chose to walk partway down the mountain in order to see the beauty of these falls. The primitive forest coupled with the sound rush of water makes for a peaceful journey.

Notice in the pictures that, despite being the heat of summer, we are wearing long sleeves and pants. Hailuogou is much colder in the summer due to its altitude. Dress accordingly!

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All the Tea in China

12/19/2019

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Depending on where you are in China, there are tea farms where you can do everything from picking to drying to tasting. This past summer, I visited what is deemed the birthplace of Chinese tea, in Sichuan Province on Mengding Mountain.

The tea in this area is called Mengding Ganlu which means "Sweet Dew of Mengding." The tea is hand-picked and hand-roasted. We had the opportunity to pick and roast the tea.

We are instructed to pick the newest baby tea leaves. While we thought we were following this direction, when we bring our bounty back to the tea growers, they pick through and remove about a third of our leaves.

The roasting is done in an enormous wok over a blazing fire. The fire is stoked by the woman of the house while the man mixes the the leaves around...using his bare hands! The leaves need to be constantly mixed so that they do not burn.

After the hard work, we sit down to a tea ceremony in which the growers show us how to steep the tea and let us taste several varieties. Join me on a Chow Fun Tour and taste some of the best teas in the world!

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Tibetan Macaques

12/9/2019

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Macaques live in mountains all over China, but I had the privilege of meeting the Tibetan Macaques on my recent trip to Emei Mountain in Sichuan Province. What a lively group! My favorite duo were the mom and very little baby, but the monkey drinking milk comes in a close second. They grab some of their food from unsuspecting tourists, like the cookies and milk and yogurt, but some of it is purchased with the monkeys in mind. That would be the fruit and nuts. Their mannerisms are so close to human that I marvel each time I see one. On this day, we saw so many that all my marveling set us back about an hour. Time well spent.

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Hailuogou Glacier Park Part I

All the Tea in China

Tibetan Macaques

Lauren Drazen

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