The Pinglin Tea Museum, in the misty mountains of New Taipei City’s Pinglin District (坪林), has reopened its doors after being closed for a year for renovations.
The 18-year-old museum decided to paint its traditional Fujian-style red brick courtyard building a deeper gray and changed its interior design to make more “dynamic and dexterous” use of interior space.
Given that the main entrance to the museum is up four sets of steps, it also adding ramps to make it easier for physically challenged visitors to access the facilities.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
Presiding over Sunday’s reopening ceremony, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that he hoped the renovated museum would help give its visitors a deeper understanding of Taiwan’s rich tea culture.
The museum now has different rooms where visitors can learn how to make tea, learn the origins of Pinglin’s different types of tea and learn to appreciate tea culture through live presentations and technologically interactive classrooms, Chu said.
Visitors would be able to learn about the different colors of tea that result from different tea leaves, and smell the difference in tea leaves, the museum said.
Museum officials said that the museum will periodically change its exhibitions in a bid to attract repeat visitors and have them see something new each time.
The museum invited “Tea Party,” a group recognized by iF Communication Design last year for being influential in innovating tea culture, to demonstrate how to enjoy tea culture in modern life, as well as asking renowned tea connoisseur Lin Ping-hui (林炳輝) to Sunday’s event.
To help local students learn the importance of their family’s trade and perhaps nudging them to take over from their parents when they grow up, the museum also invited junior-high school students to learn about tea.
We hope that by experiencing tea culture these students also come to appreciate the history of Pinglin and help carry that glory into the future, Sixth Pinglin Tea Room plantation manager Su Wen-sung (蘇文松) said.
The museum also hopes that its reopening special exhibitions on Pinglin tea and the English tea culture would help connection Taiwan’s tea culture with that of the wider world, museum director Liu Yi-ju (劉一儒) said.
The museum is open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays and stays open an hour later on weekends. It is closed the first Monday of each month, Lunar New Year’s Eve and Lunar New Year’s Day.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
The New Taipei City Government today warned about the often-overlooked dangers of playing in water, and recommended safe swimming destinations to cool off from the summer heat. The following locations in the city as safe and fun for those looking to enjoy the water: Chienshuiwan (淺水灣), Baishawan (白沙灣), Jhongjiao Bay (中角灣), Fulong Beach Resort (福隆海水浴場) and Sansia District’s (三峽) Dabao River (大豹溪), New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Department Director-General Yang Tsung-min (楊宗珉) said. Outdoor bodies of water have variables outside of human control, such as changing currents, differing elevations and environmental hazards, all of which can lead to accidents, Yang said. Sudden
RSS