This April, The Beijing Center is hosting A Taste of Spring: Tea Etiquette and Culture with Dr. Meng. Our tea room has been newly renovated and redecorated to welcome visitors with tea paraphernalia (or wanju), excellent varieties of tea sourced by experts from around China, the latest technology to facilitate learning and classes, and a comfortable atmosphere.
As part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations, we’re opening it up to the public to visit with A Taste of Spring: Tea Etiquette and Culture with Dr. Meng. For 119 RMB, the seasonally-limited class offers participants a chance to go beyond the basics of tea and taste the exquisite pre-Qingming teas, picked before April as the first buds of the year. A dozen varieties will be sampled, and participants will learn to brew their own for tea ceremonies as well as about different tea ceremony cultures across China.
Dr. Cynthia Meng has taught Chinese tea and culture to both domestic and international audiences for over 15 years. She received her Ph.D from Soochow University, carried out post-doctoral studies at Tsinghua University, and in 2017 was a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her expertise in Chinese tea is grounded in her personal passion as well as her research in Chinese linguistics. Dr. Meng has honed her skills not only in tea appreciation, but also in tea evaluation, and is a certified tea evaluator.
Register for the class by submitting the form here and following the instructions to submit payment. Participation is not guaranteed until payment is received.
For questions, message us on WeChat at TheBeijingCenter or email us at [email protected].
This is the first American edition of Anderson’s fascinating account of Britain’s first diplomatic mission to China in 1792. By the end of the eighteenth century the East India Company had been trading with Chinese merchants for two hundred years, but in a strictly limited way.
At the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, as the 18th century drew to a close, the Western world was eager for knowledge—driven by a philosophical movement that championed reason and science. King Louis XV of France asked for the advice of his trusted Minister of State, Henri Bertin, about how to reform the spirit of the nation, after giving it some thought, Bertin famously responded, “Sire, to inoculate the French with the Chinese spirit.”