China is known as the home of tea, where people throughout the country drink tea every day. Those who have read the famous work “The Teahouse” by Laoshe must have a deep impression of Beijing’s teahouse.

In an early stage teahouses in Beijing fell into four categories: Qing (only-tea house), Shu (storytelling teahouse), Jiu(wine teahouse), and Ye(country teahouse). In an only-tea teahouse, tea is served without any refreshment. Visitors include rich children back from a walk with pet birds, old folks from morning exercise or business bargainers. A storytelling teahouse refers to one that visitors come to enjoy storytelling while having a tea. In a wine teahouse, wines and delicious food are also served besides the tea, which is especially attractive to those rich epicures. A country teahouse lies from the urban area, mostly with tables and chairs ye full of countrified interests.

Among Beijing’s various teahouses, one of the most famous is the Laoshe Teahouse. Located on the Qianmen Western Street, the Laoshe Teahouse was founded in 1988 and named after “The Teahouse”, a masterpiece by Laoshe, a famous scholar. Elegantly decorated, the teahouse offers a typical Beijing-style atmosphere where the audiences enjoy drama and musical performances while enjoying tea and snacks. In the last 18 years since its Opening, it has received about 40 heads of state, numerous celebrities and over two million local and foreign visitors.

It is not cheap to have a tea in the Laoshe Teahouse because it provides services mainly to tourists from both at home and abroad. However, there are also many local teahouses available with reasonable prices, We strongly recommend you to try one of the RBT(rabbit) teahouse chain, which is very popular among the young people in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan. It offers delicious snack and various tea and milk tea, as well as the menu is written in both Chinese and English!

* If you have any questions about tea house, feel free to leave us a comment.