Tuesday: Amway China, 7 Banyan Temple, Tea House

Today promised to be interesting, and it was! But like every experience to-date, it wasn't quite what we'd expected. We visited Amway China, a Buddhist temple, and a tea house. (Ate at at Thai restaurant, and shopped in a local market also)

I think folks in Grand Rapids will find the Amway pictures very interesting. For me, it was so interesting to see how different the Amway China facility (built in 1992) was from the Amway facility I saw in Grand Rapids in 1990. We also learned that in China, companies must obtain special authorization to conduct direct sales, which Amway has in 24 provinces. Also, the distribution people earn 9% commission on their sales. Unfortunately, our tour of Amway was short, and excluded any of the manufacturing area. But, we made good use of the extra time and visited an Amway retail store.

Then, we visited the Seven Banyan Buddhist temple. This was such an interesting place. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Lastly, the Teahouse. Here a hostess seats you at a table, and then demostrates the proper tea preparation technique (which is to "wash" it first, and drink either the 2nd, 3rd/4th, etc. brew), and gives tastes of several teas. This is really high quality stuff, so I bought a little here, and bought more at the market where local people shop. I think we all have a better appreciation for tea than before.