I thought I remember puer links describing Russian investment in
Chinese puer factories in the sixties or about. I know we had a recent
discussion where compress black tea for Russian market wasn't puerh.
"Old comrade" pops up often enough on TaoBao through the translation
software. I don't have any current notes on what factories or product
that could be.

Jim

Alex Chaihorsky wrote:
> > Tea: Haiwan Factory Lao Tong Zhi '04
> > Source: Yunnan Sourcing LLC
> > Leaf Description: beautiful higher grade well-compressed leaf. Very
> > aromatic.
> >..................
>
> If one's Chinese friends ever discover that one lived in a socialist country
> they always forewarn one never to use the Chinese equivalent of the very
> common word "comrade" - Tong Zhi, in its original meaning, because nowadays
> it is used almost exclusively to describe gays. I saw that cake - these are
> the right characters... So I wonder - since this is a new cake - what does
> it name mean - an Old Comrade or an Old Fairy?
>
> Alex.