I just read an interesting article in the International Herald Tribune about how tea has boosted the Yunnan economy. If you have walked the streets of Yunnan's provincial capital, Kunming, you could easily verify this fact. I have been many places in South and Southwest China, and few have as many tea shops lining the streets. I guess they have to have something to drink when they play Mahjong, right?

Still, I have to wonder about the "wild tea" idea.

What is the coffee culture in China? We really have to cut that question down to size. What is the coffee culture in Liuzhou, our local area? Now there is a question we can possibly answer.

Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and all the other big cities have already been infiltrated by Starbucks, but that does not really say much about the underlying culture of coffee drinkers. Who drinks it? How often to they drink? What kind of coffee?

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is going to implement a law beginning 1 June to force retailers to charge customers for the plastic bags. In addition, a minimum thickness for the bags will be set. Amen.

Small farms, on the other hand, are an excellent way to find not only organic, but hand picked, hand rolled, and hand processed tea. You can hardly find much better than that.

The downside is that these small farms are hard to find. So, we wanted to showcase one such farm. If you are interested in the strictest quality control for your tea, and are interested in Jade, Yun Bi Oolong, or Ruan Tze Oolong, you can find all these wonderful quality teas in one place.

Liuzhou has a much more specific focus on industry and commerce. As the video says, it is much more than a regional hub, but key to the trade in all of Southwest and Southern China, with wholesale and retain network cooperation reaching to East China.

In other words, I, myself a foreigner to China, was asked by another foreigner to find a Chinese product for a Chinese factory, when more than likely, there are dozens of people in that factory who could have done just as good a job as I could have in finding the product since they are Chinese nationals. Funny. Seems like taking the long way around to me. All I can assume is that this deal has more than meets the eye.

When it came to Chinese law and the legal system, I definitely defaulted to the cynic side. Mind you, that was based on nothing but blind fear of something about which I did not have the slightest bit of first-hand evidence. Then I met my lawyer.

The comment went something along the lines of, "some restaurants might have excellent products, but many foreign-run restaurants sell the food in such a way that the Chinese customers just feel like you are saying they are stupid." They lose face. I had to ask him to explain.

Now, keep in mind, when I say I live in a small town hidden away in Southwest China, I do not mean a small city. I am not counting using the inflated sense of size usually used in talking about China's cities. One million people is a small city around here. This little town, though, is about 30,000 people...a little different. Just keep that in mind.

Oops, it looks like they mispelled "tickling" as "tickeling" too!

I have talked about the coffee culture in China before, but I was very interested in what this article had to say about China's coffee production. Though only briefly, they did hint toward the same conclusions I see for China's coffee beans.

I, of course, was not there, and could not say for sure. Did Michelangelo drink coffee? I don't know. He is Renaissance, but if you ask me, he and his peers got things going in the direction of the Englightenment. He is Italian, at least, so maybe he was a coffee guy. But I digress.

Western nations' governments, researchers, and reporters often blast China for this and that policy. And clear statistics of the illiteracy rate among China's massive rural population is of great concern for the Chinese government. In this matter, though, there are a great many factors at play. This is not a matter that more money or better drafted government resolutions are going to solve. I would say the biggest factor is cultural.

We must find a balance, though. How much work? How much play? And when does work become play and play become work? I love photography, but quite honestly, it is very easy for me to become completely consumed with photography, thinking about shots and projects long after laying down to go to sleep and waking up with new techniques to try. I think we do need a hobby, something we enjoy to give us an opportunity to relax a little. If that hobby, however, is just another consuming activity in our lives, it does not accomplish much.