The Macanese Tea Garden

Despite my love of Vietnamese coffee, I'm a tea guy at heart. Imagine my excitement when I discovered that there was a museum in Macau called the Tea Culture House!

The Macau Tea Culture House

Tea is a big part of Chinese culture, and Macau was one of the most important trading ports from where tea was exported back to Europe. Inside the museum, we learned all about the history and culture of Chinese tea, as well as information about the different types of teas that grow in China.

inside the tea house

The museum was completely free! It was pretty small, and very quiet. We were the only ones inside, so we could take our time.

the tea museum

The museum is built at Lou Lim Leoc Garden, a public park that was once the garden of the private residence of a very wealthy merchant. Built in the early 1900s, the park is now a green and tranquil public place within the densely-packed Macau.

Lou Lim Leoc Garden

Walking through the winding trails, we passed Chinese-style pagodas, old ladies practicing Tai Chi, and men meeting with their birds.

birds singing in the park

Somehow, Macau never feels as dense and crowded as it's supposed to be. It's easy to walk around the entire city; the bus system is affordable, efficient, and easy; and drivers happily stop for you to cross the street. It actually seems like a really nice place to live. Even so, I think having these green spaces like Lou Lim Leoc Park make a huge difference in people's well-being. It's important to have a place for a little fresh air in such a big, crowded city.

the gates to Lou Lim Leoc Park

Leaving the park, we walked to the nearby Kuan Im Temple. Kuan Im is the Cantonese name for Guanyin, the female Buddha, Bodhisattva (Buddhist saint), and Taoist goddess of mercy.

Kuan Im Temple

The temple is an old one, and it was under renovation when we arrived. We entered the outer courtyard through an old stone gate, flanked by guardian giants.

two immortals guarding the temple

The air was thick with the fragrant smell of the long-burning coils of incense that hung from the rafters. It was very quiet except for the soft chimes of a few bells coming from deep within the temple complex.

long-burning spirals of incense

The temple itself was laid out very similarly to the Jade Emperor Temple in Saigon, with box-like rooms opening back into deeper and quieter shrines.

inside the temple shrine

There are churches and temples everywhere you look in Macau. It is, sort of surprisingly, a very spiritual place. So many tourists never look past the casinos and nightlife, but there is a lot of rich culture and history to be found amongst the twisting streets and ancient plazas of old Macau.

incense