The elder of the two Messrs. Huang pours us tea in the family's country home built into the hillside of a small village in Fujian province's Anxi County (安溪县). Sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution in 1969, Mr. Huang built his own house and decided to remain in the village once the tumultuous period ended, becoming the village's first farmer of tieguanyin (铁观音, Iron Avalokitesvara) tea, the county's specialty. The generous elder Huang invited us into his home for dinner, an overnight stay and breakfast, an offer which we gladly accepted.
