A gaiwan dated back to the 30's. It looks very close to a modern gaiwan except that the cup part is more bowl-shaped, and the plate has a big hole in the middle to hold the cup.

China is the origin of tea. It was in the South-West part of China that Chinese tea was first found.

South-Western China falls in the tropical and sub-tropical climate zone. It is covered by large areas of primeval forests. The warm and moist environment is the perfect cradle for tea trees. Huge, 2,700 years old wild tea trees and 800 years old planted tea trees can still be found there.

The Legend

, God of Agriculture (GoA), was one of the prehistoric representatives of Chinese people. He was know to have invented agriculture, medicine. And he was said to be the one who found tea. 

In (GoA's Book of Herb), it says "GoA personally tasted hundreds of herb. In a single day, he was hit by 72 poisons. But he discovered the tea tree and used the tea leaves to neutralize all poisons."

That is probably the earliest record of tea among Chinese people.