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The second stage is ‘identification’, which enhances knowledge for
customers, such as the aquilaria source areas (like Vietnam, Hainan and In-
donesia) and tea categories (like West Lake Longjing Tea, Fuding White Tea,
Yunan Pu’er Tea and Qimen Red Tea). The last and highest stage is ‘Tao’,
which is related to meditation of spirit, a metaphysical context where you
can explore the balance of the ego and the world.
“There is spiritual power in tea and incense, which starts qualitative
change when it gets close to spirit. In the same way, the tea brewed by dif-
ferent people would be different, even when the tea leaves, water, equipment
and temperature are the same.”
As incense still stays outside the mainstream, 80% of the events are
tea ceremonies, including the very first two. Chen still remembers the
comments for the first tea ceremony. “They have never attended a tea
ceremony as comfortable as that one. Such events can easily lead to com-
parisons,” which is an inevitable mindset in today’s society that pushes
everyone to flaunt himself with luxury and over-priced products and
compete with others secretly. “In this way, they can’t really let down their
guard to savor the cup of tea in front of them, to appreciate themselves
and be inclusive. However, visitors can gradually give up these bad habits
in the Peace Place, temporarily forget the daily stress and enjoy the tea in
the relaxing, artistic environment.”

In addition to the events, the Peace Place also hosts cultural events
for many enterprises. The guests are normally senior managers and VIP
customers, “who are too accustomed to and bored of high-class and gorgeous
cuisines. Instead, the simple tea ceremony can catch their attention and
relieve their stress.” Chen believes tea ceremony is on its way to emerge.
Not only the founder and visitors can sense the core of tea and incense,
as Chen keeps it in mind for staff training. “Tea and incense are my medium.
I hope my staff can earn their bread here, and also find balance and wisdom,
just like the two elementary forms of Tai Chi. I mean, they can better balance
the family, career and life.”

Set No Limits

As a highly-private space, the Peace Place boasts a lush, healthy eco-
system, allows visitors to watch birds during the daytime and enjoy the
starry light of fireflies at night. The incense materials in the garden are the
fruitful results of his long-time investigation and research with his team. The
whole story started when he was 32. Back then, he was a manager in a semi-
conductor company, and got a chance to study Zen in India. With an increas-
ing passion about the mind-calming aquilaria, he came back to Taiwan and
met some Vietnamese businessmen in the wholesale market. He soon took
on the path to find and use incense materials, and soon founded his compa-
ny, taking the tranquilization effect of aquilaria as a business opportunity.

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