China Zhong-Guo – the Middle Kingdom For centuries China has been identified as the cultural centre of the world. In fact Chinese pictography has been one of the world’s most advanced and ancient systems of writing for 5,000 years. Under the leadership of the communist Mao Zedong, China was declared a People’s Republic in 1949. The defeated nationalists, led by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) fled to the island of Taiwan. After Mao’s death in 1976 and under the government of Deng Xiaoping, China increasingly opened up to the west after 1978. Today it is thanks to this rapprochement that we are able to enjoy so many different kinds of tea. These tea varieties come mainly from 13 Chinese provinces. The country overall is divided into 22 provinces (plus Taiwan as the 23rd province) and five autonomous regions. Around 1.2 billion Chinese can look back on a tea drinking culture that is around 5,000 years old. Initially as a flavouring, later as medicine, and ending up as a luxury food with a host of benefits, tea has become ever more important. There are many conflicting stories about the origins of tea – but Lu Yu (768 – 824 A.D.), the first master of both tea and Zen, wrote a tea book (the Cha Ching), which made tea a significant item in its own right. Tea, which for a long time was exclusively part of Chinese culture, brought great wealth to the country. War and corruption spread the secret of tea to the outside world. It is for this reason that today we can drink delicious tea varieties from India, Japan, Sri Lanka, and other parts of the world.