Chinese girl #8: How do girls live well in China？

This place is situated in London's famous luxury shopping mall, Harrods.

This is an afternoon tea inside The Landmark hotel.

This is an afternoon tea situated in London's China Town. The place is called Yauatcha and is a michelin starred restaurant.

This afternoon tea is one in London Piccadilly Circus.

This is London's Savoy Hotel.

This is an afternoon tea I had in Budapest. The highlight of this place was definitely the decor.

This is Beijing's "Where do customers come from". It has transparent french windows. The decor is very unique and the taste is brilliant.

This is from a while ago at Beijing's World Trade heaven street's afternoon tea. It was the first time I saw flames atop the bread.

This is at Beijing, San LiTun's Missbonbon afternoon tea.

This is Beijing ChaoYang Joy city's afternoon tea.

This is a cotton candy afternoon tea served at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.

This is an afternoon tea place in Auckland, New Zealand

Afternoon tea can be traced back to the English 17th Century and has continued it's fervour to this day. Modern afternoon tea is now something widely enjoyed. Eating cakes and sipping tea. This British ritual started around the year 1661 when a Portugese princess brought it to England.

In the 17th century, the upper class would enjoy a rich breakfast and then a comparitively simple lunch. They would then socialise up to around 8 o'clock in the evening before dinner. So, the girls would feel rather hungry in between. Historically speaking, girls in that era of that class would not be expected to work. When the girls need some rest, they would have some tea and sit to talk with each other. This became quite culturally widespread, drinking tea and having conversation at the same time. It became all the rage in high society England.The usual time for afternoon tea is between 3 and 5pm and is split into two types, high tea and low tea. Most people choose high tea.

The presentation of afternoon tea is something carefully presented. Traditional English Afternoon Tea is served with three layers. The first, is sandwiches, second is scones and the third layer is for cakes and fruits. You start from the bottom and finish at the top. The scones you would eat by applying some cream and jam, then eat a little bit, and then apply more cream and jam. If you want to have milk tea, you poor the milk first, then the tea.

In the past, afternoon tea always used one kind of tea. The royal family prefered tea from the far east. For instance, the red tea which was widespread throughout England. However, over the years, afternoon tea has developed some what, and now you can taste many kinds of tea, including fruit teas. There are even tea's fermented with flowers such as the Rose tea.

For me, I like to have fruit teas, espeically since the sweetness of the cakes can be overwhelming. The taste of fruit tea allows me to neutralise this. When I milk tea, I add as little sugar as possible because this brings out the fragrant flavours much more.

Afternoon tea has become so popular now that it is widespread in China too. The integration of many other food cultures has brought afternoon tea not only to China but many other parts of the world as well.
Historically, having afternoon tea was a symbol of being rich and powerful, enjoyed only by the nobles. Nowadays, girls having contemporary afternoon tea is just a symbol of enjoying life.