5 Nov 2011 ~ Hong Kong Park ~ Part I

Listening to: Pizzicato Five ~ Twiggy Twiggy (Twiggy vs. James Bond)

Hong Kong Park is a collection of gardens, man-made waterfalls, greenhouses, a tea museum, and aviary. It is Central district's only large open space.

Can you see the live turtles on the right?

This is an Orchid Tree. And then with close-up of the flowers.

I learned a lot about tea at the museum. From various methods of tea preparation throughout history to exquisite tea sets. Here is a teapot from the Qing Dynasty (1736-95).

Ancient Chinese texts attribute the discovery of tea to Emperor Shen Nung, believed to have ruled about 2737 B.C. According to legend, he was sipping hot, boiled water in his garden when a leaf from a tea bush nearby fell into his cup. He smelled and tasted the infusion and reckoned it was a big improvement over hot water. Tea drinking was born.

I decided to google this Emperor, and came up with another interesting tidbit.

The “Lu Shi,” a Chinese work of the Sung dynasty, about 500 A.D., contains a statement that the Emperor Shen Nung, in the twenty-eighth century B.C., first taught the people of China to cultivate “ma” (hemp) for making hempen cloth and using for it's medicinal purposes.