If you look up Cha Dao or tea Culture you will find many many kinds of this cultural art that's even to a science from China. It's very ancient, and even has Zen styles (called "chan" in Chinese).
My brother-in-law came to visit in May/June this year, and our family in China asked us if there were anything/ any things we wanted. We always want tea stuff. But, this year, we wanted the real high quality Cha Dao AKA Gungfu Cha stuff. there's many many styles of this, which range town to town, city to city, province to province, and many different age groups even preform this differently, or social status people. My brother-in-law, Mr. Zhang (Zhang Weifu), was something of a connoisseur in this art. However, many tea masters have their own ideologies and styles. He had his style and he was teaching me his way.
We specifically asked our family for the style of this tea culture that is the tray table style. This was very important to us, because we didn't want to pour everything outside, but inside, and without the tray table kind, a regular tray will easily fill up with water because you're supposed to "xi-xi cha" (wash the tea) in a ritualized protocol.
We also got another Gungfu Cha set, but this was the one we're using.
We did the majority of this stuff in May-June while the weather was actually very cold here this year even in early July, until mid July when we got struck with a heat wave that is only now starting to dissipate slightly.
And just because:
A common thread among Gypsets is the openness to many kinds of cultural and worldly cultures, and items, as well as different time periods. Gypsets are actually NOT all white women, which is bunk. Anyone can be a Gypset, usually its women, but I see no problem with calling a man this if he so wishes. Many Gypsets are ethnic mixed themselves (like myself).
So, some of my photos here are a bit artistic.
