Chinatown Chen pu

I know we've all probably seen the odd translations of Chinese into English...the second page Jim notes has this to offer: " This sexual price is extremely higher than, it may be said the low-price quality merchandise. This caffeine fully manifested the courageous sea ripe tea pure strong merit, suited the collection or tastes. "

Ah-hem. Yeah.....;) Thanks for the links Jim! Oh BTW, do you (or anybody here for that matter) know how to type out Chinese characters on one's keyboard instead of having to punch in Unicode? I supposedly have the Chinese and Japanese character sets loaded into my Windows but I don't know how to use them.

Melinda

Hi Melinda,

I happen to be good friends with the webmaster of that particular site, here is what his real "intent" is.

"While the price is quite high, it is actually an attractive price for this high quality pu'er. The flavor is very representative of Meng Hai Tea Factory's excellent reputation, and is well suited for Collectors and Connoisseurs."

You have to understand that the prices on this site are typically about a tenth of the prices you would see in the USA. They are charging the rough equivalent of $300 for a case (30kg) of 5 year old cooked\black\sheng cake which works out to be about $3.50 each, expect to pay $20 and up here in the US for the same cake. Most black cakes sell for even less there but since it does come from the Meng Hai Tea Factory it is considered to be better than average. The other consideration is that older Meng Hai teas are considered very valuable by the Chinese right now because the Meng Hai factory got bought by a big conglomerate (Bowin Corp) back in October 2004. Teas made before the buyout have shot up greatly in value. I am real interested to see what the Meng Hai 2005 teas will be like.

Sasha, this site has two interesting Bamboo Pu'ers, the best tasting and most interesting one is made from YiWu Mountain Ancient Tree leaves is

Mike

Ah, I see. That does clear it up a bit, Mike, thank-you. When you get a taste of a Meng Hai 2005 do please share your thoughts with us as I have been thinking about eventually trying some of theirs...it seems like it's a name brand, as close as you can get to one anyway. I have been concentrating more on green teas lately, I think it has to do with the summer coming in.

Melinda

"The courgeous sea ripe tea" is a reference to the West Double Village the home of Puer processing http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

Jim

Mel> I know we've all probably seen the odd translations of Chinese into

low-price

character

http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

Jim, you don't know what you are talking about! You are trusting transalations that are far from being correct. You continually confuse wrappers that look similar but are really very different teas. Just like you did't know know the differnce between a Xia Guan 1st grade and a Xia Guan Supreme grade a few weeks ago. You really should learn more, or at least ask, before putting up posts like this. All you are doing is confusing people with this nonsense.

I will help anyone on this planet understand it better, that is except for you. You have attacked me so many times that I wouldn't give you my spent Tea Tray water let alone help you with your misconceptions. Your attacks on me are a matter of record, as is your hypocrisy of doing some of the very same things that you attacked me for.

Mike

Isn't "courageous sea" an unneeded translation of Menghai? Likewise for "West Double Village" and Xishuangbanna?

/Lew

Hey Sasha you don't have get into the middle of this. Can you compare the wrapper of the beencha I sent you to the following site and let us know if there is any difference? Also if you could please note the price tag.

Thanks, Jim

http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

That's the term used on the translated Chinese sites. It took me awhile to work backwards to verify that is West Double Village. I haven't seen anything that also means Menghai perse. I'm working with what the translation gives me.

Jim

Lewis Per>

If by "translated Chinese sites" you mean translated by a computer program (e.g. Babelfish or Google), that's exactly what I mean: they often translate words that should be left alone. Menghai, for example is just a name, and it doesn't help anyone to translate it.

/Lew

I have a collection of pictures that I and others collected in China of that computerized translations. My favorite is the huge hanging market sign that proudly declared "SPREAD TO F*CK THE FRUIT". The Chinese version mean "Loose dry fruit". Go f...igure. :)

Once again you show your ignorance...

There are dozens of teas, and each from vintages spanning many years, wrapped in the very same wrapper. The differences are often so small that you cannot tell from a thumbnail sized photo, differences as small as the thickness of one letter in the font or the hue of magenta used can mean the difference between a worthless cake and one of extreme value. The proof of that is evident if you look through the very site you are quoting, you will see several very different teas with the identical looking wrappers. I have books that document these differences, much like the books for coin collectors, showing the minuscule differences in the wrappers (inside and out) and equate them to pedigree and vintage. I spoke of this phenomenon on my site ages ago. If you are judging pedigree, vintage, and value by the wrapper alone then you do indeed need to educate yourself more and stop spreading misinformation! You are getting as bad about spreading misinformation as some of the vendors.....

BTW Lew you are correct, the loosely translated "courageous sea" does indeed mean the Meng Hai Factory when referencing pu'er. I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Mike

I will if I find it :)

Sasha.

http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

In one of the two examples the term 'courageous sea' and Fuhai are both used. Fuhai is the old name of Menghai. It could be the translation software doesn't know that 'courageous sea' is the newer Menghai. It doesn't matter. If all you get is 'courageous sea' then that is what you work with. I saw Lost In Translation. It's not about linguistics.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Likewise

example

In one of the two examples the term 'courageous sea' and Fuhai are both used. Fuhai is the old name of Menghai. It could be the translation software doesn't know that 'courageous sea' is the newer Menghai. It doesn't matter. If all you get is 'courageous sea' then that is what you work with. I saw Lost In Translation. It's not about linguistics.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Likewise

example

No rush. It will look the same. The insert says to ignore all wrapper blemishes interpreted as special marks by flimflam artists to demand higher prices.

Jim

Alex Chaihorsky wrote:

http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=

Flimflam huh, there you go showing your ignorance even further... I guess you don't know how to accept the truth even when backed up with facts. The Chinese have this down to a refined Collector's market, whether you choose to accept that or not.

You do seem to be in denial... So prove it to yourself:

Without reading the descriptions, just by looking at the wrapper, tell me what's the difference between these 5 cakes? One of them costs

Without reading the descriptions, just by looking at the wrapper, tell me what's the difference between these 3 cakes? One of them costs

These are all very different teas that would look very much the same to the uninitiated! Just because your Chinatown cake looks the same as one of these wrappers doesnt mean a cotton-picking thing. I gurrantee it isnt the same exact 5 year old tea. There is no way you are going to see a $3.50 wholesale cake in China sell for $4 here, no matter how shrewd you think you are.

Wake up, smell the Pu'er, and quit talking out of your backside...

Mike

Jim, I apologize, my tone has been very unprofessional. A part of me feels that you deserve whatever you get since you have attacked me so relentlessly over the years, but that part of me is ugly and needs to disappear. Hence I aologize for the tone.

Have a good life sir, you really should do your homework before spreading any more misinformation about Pu'er, quite honestly you are way off base.

Mike

Space snipped-for-privacy@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com4/12/05

Jim,

I'm not sure what you mean by "blemishes" here, but those imperfections in the actual paper can be very telling. If there are little holes in the paper made by insects, those holes near the center (where the paper is bunched onto the cake) will go through several layers of paper. This is a good way to know that the cake had not been unwrapped and rewrapped. That begins to suggest some level of authenticity. Perhaps you meant something else by blemishes though. Just thoughts.

Michael

I suspect it was more of a crack regarding the my statement where wrappers that look identical to the untrained eye really do have minuscule differences. This is how the pros can help to authenticate the difference between an authentic 30 year old cake and a modern forgery. These labels all originated from what was once Governement owned factories and the basic design has remained unchanged for decades. However, things like font size, justification, color hue, etc all changed over the years, even though the bulk of the design remained the same, and one can get a good indication from these details as to the pedigree and vintage of the cake if they know what to look for. These nuances are well documented in Chinese literature but the average American is not aware of them.

The moral of the story is that just because 2 wrappers look identical does NOT mean that the tea inside will be the same. I can prove this beyond doubt regardless of what the naysayers may allege.

Mike