Wash Chinese Tea Leaves?

Today I drank a berry tea, a western tea bag sent via a care package to my sitemate. As I poured the boiling water over the tea bag for the first time, the water turned into a deep purple with a rich, strong berry taste, a bit bitter. As I poured the boiling water over the tea bag for the second time, the drink turned into a murky brownish dark liquid with a taste of hot water. I didn't even try pouring the boiling water over the tea bag for a third time.

Are American tea bags that weak, can only be used once?

Usually, I drink Chinese tea and can pour liters of water over the same green leaves, brown leaves, flowers and have a tasty drink of tinted color for hours.

I do wonder though, are the tea leaves dirty? What is the process of drying leaves in China? Should I be washing the tea leaves with hot or cold water? Why are Chinese tea leaves stronger than tea bags? Is there really tea in those tea bags?

A couple digressions:

Last night's Thanksgiving feast and this morning's leftover dessert breakfast of pumpkin pie and apple crumble was yummy. Thanks to all of the cooks. Because my gas tank was empty, I instead of cooking bought a garlic covered Chinese salad of an unknown green vegetable and a deep fried chicken for the Thanksgiving potluck.

I am still knitting, but because my camera lens is not working at the moment, I have not posted the pictures of the 4 recently finished projects: socks, neck warmer, scarf, ear warmer.

Podcasts that I have been recently enjoying are Rubyfruit Radio, Cast On and maybe a new one called Quirky Nomad.