Shenzhen International Expo for Tea Trade & Culture

Instead of going to Chinese class on Friday, AnnaRae, Ashlee, Ben, and I went to the 2008 China (Shenzhen) International Expo for Tea Trade & Culture (2008中国深圳国际茶业茶文化贸易傅览会). Even though the expo is free, China still wants people to register to stuff. So we filled out a pointless piece of paper that asked for names, phone numbers, favorite teas, and purpose for attending the expo. For the purpose, we all ticked the box for "market and product information." This must have been the incorrect box to check. Instead of normal admission tickets, each one of us received badges that read "buyer." Maybe it was because we were foreigners or because we ticked a different box. Our white faces and badges did attract extra attention from the tea vendors. I don't know which made us more noticeable. We were the only foreigners present. Also, the photos of foreigners at some of the stalls were of vendors. Maybe Chinese people assume only foreigner buyers, not average foreigners, are interested in Chinese tea.
We sampled several types of tea: oolong(乌龙茶), puer(普洱茶), green(绿茶), jasmine(茉莉花茶), and chrysanthemum(菊花茶). I tend not to like puer, but it didn't taste horrible at the expo. Most of the time, puer tastes like dirt. However, this tea is similar to wine; the taste improves with age. At one stall we sampled two different puer vintages. The younger one did taste of dirt, but the older one was not as strong. At this stall, the female tea servers wore minority dress. I could not identify the minority group, but it definitely succeeded to capturing our foreigner eyes. There was one puer tea at another stall that had a sweet aftertaste. We all agreed that this tea was nice, and we bought a block of tea each. For those who do not know, puer tea is compressed into various-shaped cakes for sale. These cakes are pretty solid but do not weigh much. It might break if you hit someone on the head with it. This is mere speculation; I have not attacked anyone with a block of tea.
We did not sample every kind of tea because there were so many. I was happy just to taste some tea.
In the hall next to the tea expo was a "winter fashion" sale. I can understand why some of the clothes were so cheap. The clothes lacked the style that the West prefers. I know China has a different sense of fashion and style, but....