Shantou ![](https://big5.cctv.com/gate/big5/english.cctv.cn/images/media.gif)
When in Shantou, the first and last thing you will be asked to do is drinking tea. I mean drinking wherever you go, from dawn to dusk, and it鈥檚 known as nothing but Chaoshan Kungfu tea.
Local: 鈥淵ou need to be patient while enjoying Chaoshan kungfu tea.鈥 /font>
According to traditional way, there are always three tea cups, and they are arranged in the shape of Chinese character 鍝 meaning Savor.
Let鈥檚 put it this way, don鈥檛 count on Kungfu tea while you are on the verge of dehydration. The complicated preparing ritual makes it more a way of socializing than thirst-quenching.
Local: You鈥檙e not supposed to point these two fingers outward while holding the cup.
Host: Why is that?
Local: Coz it鈥檚 rude to other people.
Shantou is a great place to seek out some quality leisure time - it鈥檚 got everything, mountain, ocean, and of course, world-class golf course.
Just 20-minute drive from Shantou downtown, the Citic golf club is a standard 18-hole course going 36-hole and is ranked within the top ten courses in the country.
You can also find plenty low maintenance fun going out and about, for example, adventuring into Guxueyan, a bunch of huge rocks at Chaoyang district.
The whole hill is like a Lego work built of grotesque rocks. There are hidden passages, large and small caves. The bizarre terrain could have been formulated millions years ago by the ocean.
鈥淓xhausted, I really need a place to lie down, hey, looks like a perfect natural stone bed! It is said a famous monk in Tang Dynasty used to meditate here.鈥
鈥淎mazing! The whole temple is built inside a stone cave!鈥
The temple is almost a case study of avant-garde design: three huge rocks made the roof and the walls of the main hall, the gap at the top serves as the skylight.
Master Shi Guangxu is the only monk practicing here. Well, sort of, he鈥檚 got a loyal companion here: a stone turtle. Master told me that local people believe that touching the turtle head can bring them luck in taking exams.