Reunite with Relatives, Drink Tea, Eat Lunch, Repeat

When I told friends I was going to spend time in Fujian, I heard, "you're going to drink lots of tea!"  And...they were right!  Here's your typical tea set.  Tea is brewed in the covered bowl, then poured into the taller bowl with the spout and then distributed into the smaller cups for distribution.  The second your cup is empty, it's filled.

When I told friends I was going to spend time in Fujian, I heard, "you're going to drink lots of tea!"  And...they were right!  Here's your typical tea set.  Tea is brewed in the covered bowl, then poured into the taller bowl with the spout and then distributed into the smaller cups for distribution.  The second your cup is empty, it's filled.

The second day after the New Year's is the day to visit family.  We got our start early on the night of New Year's.  Here we are visiting with one of Onions' cousins (the female on the left) at her tea shop.

Kids EVERYWHERE are drawn to the iPhone!

The next day, we drive into the hills of Anxi County.....the home and heartland of Oolong tea.

The goal of the day is to visit many of Onions' Mom's family in the mountains where she grew up.  Our ultimate goal is to get to Grandma's house.  Here we are at the first stop, an older sister's house.  I had yet to figure out how the day was going to work.  We sat for tea, then ate lunch. Little did I know this was to the be the first of FOUR lunches.  I didn't pace myself well and ate myself full at the first stop.

So in the 1970's Onions Dad, as part of a program to help the rural areas, was sent from the city to work at this tea factory in the Anxi area.  It was while he was here in the area that he met Onions Mom.

The family lived in the dorms of the factory until Onions was 4.  Even after he moved to the city, Onions would come up here every summer and hang out in the country with family and friends.

Stop 2.  Onions Mom's youngest sister and her husband, who live in the house on the left.

The other two houses belong to the younger brothers of the wife's husband.  You'll see the tea set up in all the homes.  So it turns out that these families don't live here but all work in the big cities along the coast, such as Quanzhou, Fuzhou and Shenzhen.  The big deal about Spring Festival is that everyone comes back to their homes and gets to see each other!

One of the favorite people I met all day was the youngest sister's husband.  Very chill and open to conversation.

Tea with the husband's middle brother.

Then five minutes later with the youngest brother.

Then lunch number 2.

Quick stop for tea with on of the older sisters (far right).

Then it was up farther into the mountains to visit more relatives.

Then it was up farther into the mountains to visit more relatives.

A drive up a steep hill (of which they all used to have to walk) we ended up in a high mountain valley where Onions mom and her family grew up.  Two brothers live in the white house farthest up the hill and a house that you see the side of to the right of that house next to the trees.

Tea at the home of the youngest brother, who lives in Shenzhen.

Lunch Number 3.

Lunch with a view

Tea with another brother.

And then it was time to go to Grandma's house, which is pictured, tucked back up against the hillside.

Onions and his Mom.

The entire family grew up in this home, which is on the walk up to Grandma's house.  It now sits empty but is apparently given to one of the brothers.

GRANDMA!  88 years old and lives on her own.

Raises her own animals to eat and plants her own vegetables.

Raises her own animals to eat and plants her own vegetables.

Onions Mom, Grandma and Onions.

Time for lunch number 4.

One of the sisters took some of her Mom's vegetables.

Funniest scene of the day.  The youngest son came over to go refill the Grandma's propane tank.  She comes out with food to give him.  He reverts to being a kid and exclaims he doesn't want it.  It was funny to see how he went back and inhabited his teenage self.  I probably do the same.

He left with the food!  Like he ever even had any other choice.

Time for us all to leave the mountain and we all paraded down to the cars.

Sunset on a crazy day of tea, food and relatives.  It was totally a Chinese cultural day.