Skip to content
  • Epic Quest
  • Contact Me!
  • About Me
Instagram YouTube Facebook
Menu

Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker.

Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker. Doing all three in China
Instagram YouTube Facebook
  • Epic Quest
  • Contact Me!
  • About Me
Hit enter to search or esc to close
Home  >  Chinese Culture • Traveling  >  The World's Largest Tea Museum
Posted inChinese Culture Traveling

The World's Largest Tea Museum

Posted By Becky Ances Posted on March 29, 2013
Please install Travelera Share Buttons plugin

Pinlin, Taiwan. Ever the tea lover, when I found out the world’s largest tea museum was located outside of Taipei I knew it was a can’t-miss site.
Located in Pinlin, a short bus ride from the city, the whole town is dedicated entirely to tea. The street lamps are shaped like tea pots. The knobs at the top of the fences are little tea pots, and the street signs are decorated with tea leaves. AhhDORable.
When I arrived at the entrance of the World’s Largest Tea Museum I found it, well, lacking slightly. I don’t know what I expect, but with the title of World’s Largest (a title also claimed by a museum on the mainland, I should add) I was expecting something, well, a little grander. It was just one building, and it wasn’t even that big. But it had some cool stuff inside, including a lot of facts, dioramas and some historical artifacts.
One of my favorite things was the sign that greeted visitors at the entrance. The chinese character for tea is one of my favorite, and they had a whole wall covered with the different styles of the characters throughout the ages. I found that pretty interesting.

Pinlin tea museum entrance

There was also some quality chinglish. Well, not quite chinglish, but rather some of the signs said things in the cutest/funniest ways possible. For instance there was a giant tea…I don’t know the best way to describe it…a giant tea joint? Like a lot of leaves wrapped together and rolled up in a tube with a bamboo mat. It was huge, thick and tall and the sign next to it said it was “as tall as a person.”
That wasn’t exactly correct, it was only about four and a half feet tall, and whoever wrote the other sign was a tad more honest. “It is tall like a short person,” it read.
There was another sign that said the tea was best picked during the “waking of insecsty time.”
Outside was some beautiful gardens with flowering trees, plants and a ton of statues. I went to the museum by myself, and no one else was around at the time, which was a shame at these statues were just begging for hilarious pictures. I tried my best, but it’s hard to do anything too crazy when your stuck doing self-portraits.

Pinlin Tea museum

There was one ghoulish part of the museum. To fill up the space they had some life-sized vignettes of ancient people in a tea house. One of the mannequins, or wax people, was standing right near am exhaust fan and all the dust and junk from the fan had settled all over his face, making the whole thing quite creepy.

 Creepy mannequin at the Pinlin Tea Museum

 Afterwards I went to the tea shop and looked around. The reason the tea museum is in this small town is because this region has some allegedly very tasty tea, with unique flavors only available there. Sadly they were way out of my price range, so I walked away with some Taiwan black tea called “Fairy tea,” or something like that.
I did get green tea ice cream and I sat outside to enjoy it. It was a hot day, and I had done a lot of walking. Suddenly, from around the corner, a whole group of screaming, yelling, boogy covered kids appeared, led by their teacher, also with ice creams in hand. They sat around me, and in Chinese the teacher started yelling to his kids to “talk to that girl over there and practice your english.”
He said it in Chinese, and obviously expected me not to understand, but I took it as my cue to get out of there as fast as I could. “You missed your chance. You were too slow!” I heard him bark to the kids as I ran away.

Tags: green tea taipei taiwan Tea tea museum
Previous Article Long Time, No See 好久不见
Next Article Just me and My 10,000 closest friends at Thousand Island Lake

Related Posts

I Won “Favorite Teacher!”

College has started and students have come back to school after being gone for 6 months, so I wasn’t surprised when a few students contacted me to ask if I was still on campus. But I was surprised when they said they wanted to see me and give me flowers.

Read More about I Won “Favorite Teacher!”
Please install Travelera Share Buttons plugin

I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.)

I still have a few weeks of summer holiday left, and since I’m stuck in Xiamen, I decided to try to make a staycation out of it. You know, basically trying to do as many new activities and eating at as many different restaurants as I can. So why not

Read More about I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.)
Please install Travelera Share Buttons plugin

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • What School is Like in China Right Now (Fall 2020)
  • I Won “Favorite Teacher!”
  • I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.)
  • What is the Situation in China Like Now?
  • Painting a Chinese Dragon

Archives

Categories

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Posts

  • What School is Like in China Right Now (Fall 2020) Becky Ances October 9, 2020
  • I Won “Favorite Teacher!” Becky Ances September 21, 2020
  • I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.) Becky Ances September 10, 2020
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • The Swiss Family Robinson are a Bunch of Jerks December 11, 2009
  • Making it Official: My Chinese Boyfriend December 7, 2012
  • Good Chinese Wife Review and a Chance to Win a Free Book!! July 27, 2014
  • 10 Signs You've Lived in China a Long Time March 29, 2014
  • What School is Like in China Right Now (Fall 2020) October 9, 2020
  • I Won “Favorite Teacher!” September 21, 2020
  • I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.) September 10, 2020
  • What is the Situation in China Like Now? July 30, 2020

Subscribe Now to Our Newsletter, It’s Free!

Get the best content delivered straight into your inbox!

Facebook Twitter Google+

About

I’m an American who has been living in China for more than a decade! This is my blog where I muse about all things China. Please also check out my YouTube channel “Badminton Becky” and my other badminton blog at www.badmintonbecky.com

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • What School is Like in China Right Now (Fall 2020) October 9, 2020
  • I Won “Favorite Teacher!” September 21, 2020
  • I Entered a Puzzle Competition! (You can make fun of me all you want.) September 10, 2020
© Copyright 2017. Theme by BloomPixel.