>I picked up some Qing Shan Lu Shui earlier this year in Gansu. I'd
>never seen (or heard of) it before (and haven't seen it since outside
>west China). I am told it's a Kuding (Ku meaning bitter, ding meaning,
>well, um ding?) though it looks totally different to the twisted big
>leaves one associates with Kuding. I picked it up thinking it an
>interesting new green tea. I was (not UNpleasantly) surprised when I
>tasted it.

It's something I'm trying to figure out as well. When I lived in
Sichuan, I had the qing shan lv shui but I've also seen it referred to
as Kuding cha too, moreso in the south, guangdong, guangxi area. I
think Kuding is a branch of tea as well as a type; qing shan lv shui
being a type of kuding maybe. I have to ask some of my teashop pals
about it; I'll let you know.

I did ask about the meaning of Kuding, though. Ku is bitter and the
ding part is meaningless in this situation. It's just considered
'bitter'.

Isn't it beautiful tea, though? Excellent hui gan too!

>
>Hey, I'm getting sidetracked here. The point of my reply is pointing
>out the pinyin of lu=green. Admittedly, lu with dots over the u, but
>not liu. Why do ALL the quoted sales threads refer to QS Liu S and not
>QS Lu Shui? Are chinese sellers second guessing pronunciation and so
>messing up their own pinyin? Or was this common romanisation before
>pinyin. I've only ever seen the name of the tea written in characters,
>so I'm just surprised (and Mydnight's translation of the name is
>correct).

Well, the pinyin for the character ÂÌ (if you guys have Chinese
installed) is Lv; the v denoting the ¨¹ because largely pinyin is an
attempt to romanize Chinese within the confines of the English
alphabet to avoid confusion. I think most people know it as either Lu
or Liu because it would be confusing otherwise to westeners unfamilar
with the sound it represents. Also, not all Chinese know the exact
pinyin to everything, especially if they are older or were around
during the time of the Revolution or before. I actually thought it
was liu myself and didn't ask anybody about it because the sounds are
similar in the language. heh. Thank for the correction, Mr. Tea!



Mydnight

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thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.