Lao She Teahouse 老舍茶馆
Address: Building 3 Zhengyang Market, West Qianmen Dajie, Xicheng District, Beijing
北京西城区 前门西大街正阳市场3号楼
Website: http://www.laosheteahouse.com/scg/er.asp
Teahouses appeared in Beijing in late 19th and early 20th century, selling tea in the morning followed by a more entertaining style at night where storytellers would gather. Teahouses were popular places for people to gather together, where they can learn something from historical stories, get connected with literature, as well as relax after a day of work.
Lao She Teahouse is named after Lao She, who was a famous Chinese novelist and dramatist. It was first built in 1988 in a traditional Chinese architectural style. During the past decades, it has got a high reputation, and welcomed celebrities from all over the world, including former president of the United States George W. Bush in 1994 and former Prime Ministers of Japan Yasuhiro Nakasone and Toshiki Kaifu in 1992.
There are many performances on the first floor of the Lao She Teahouse every day. There are activities for opera lovers from 2pm to 4:30pm every Wednesday, folk music concerts from 2:30pm to 5pm from Monday to Friday, and shows of Peking opera, magic, acrobatics and others from 7:50pm to 9:20pm every night. There are 350 seats for people to watch the shows at the same time. And there is a big parking lot outside the teahouse. On the second floor, it is a Siheyuan for tea tasting, which is a typical historical type of residence that can be easily found throughout China, especially Beijing. Each tearoom in the building is sophisticatedly designed and exquisitely decorated with flowers, plants, birds and other animals.
In order to focus on the quality of tea, the furniture is usually a square table and a couple chairs. It is simple but elegant. And the tea will be served in a traditional tea bowl with lid.
In the Lao She teahouse, you can enjoy Chinese teas and local Beijing snacks, while watching some great shows.
What’s on the menu?
Tea:
Aged Puer Tea
Oolong Tea
Snacks:
Three Delicacies and Oolong Tea Dumplings
Green Tea Flavored Bacon Rolls
Chopped Haw Cake with Pear Shreds
Dishes:
Teahouse’s Premium Duck
Braised Chicken Wings with Black Tea
Stewed Beef in Rock Pot
Beijing Minghui Tea House 北京明慧茶院
Address: Dajue Temple, Beianhe, Haidian District, Beijing
北京市海淀区北安河大觉寺内
Website: http://www.minghui-tea.com/index.php
Minghui Tea House was founded in 1997 and located inside the Dajue Temple–a temple which has a history of more than 1000 years in the western part of Beijing. The teahouse is a symmetric architectural structure, which has one part in the North and the other in the South. There are six independent tearooms for guests to taste tea, have some tea pastries and watch tea demonstrations in the music of guzheng.
In order to offer the guests a better experience of tea tasting, Minghui teahouse not only adopts traditional methods of tea making, but also absorbs innovative thinking of tea from Taiwan. Minghui tea house sends staff to the Jiangnan area in scheduled dates each year, to visit remote tea-producing towns or villages, in order to pick out the high-quality tea leaves. Here they provide every kind of teas of excellent quality.
Water
In ancient times, water is extremely important when someone is making tea. They believed that the best tea comes with the best water. According to Zhang Dafu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD), the quality of water is even more important than that of the tea leaves in that water is what turns tea leaves into the real tea. And Minghui tea house gets its water from the Longtan spring in the temple that is inexhaustible all year round. The water has the best quality even in the eyes of ancient experts, because it is fresh, clean, soft, sweet and cold. It is perfect for the best teas.
Location
Minghui tea house is in the middle of a historical temple that has long been a popular destination for royal family members, respected literatis and wise monks. You can find the time-aged temple and buildings here, as well as a natural mineral spring, fresh air and pleasant suburbs.
People
Tea ceremony demonstrators all come from the hometowns of tea, and are trained professionals, who can play Chinese chess, write poems and are good at Chinese painting and calligraphy. They will be a good company for you to learn more about Chinese tea culture.
Tea Vessels
All the tea vessels of Minghui tea house are customized and carefully made by masters from Jiangnan area.
In the Minghui tea house, besides tea tasting, there is a restaurant of Shaoxing cuisines, well-decorated dining rooms, and a conference room.
What’s on the menu?
Tea:
Longjing Tea
Oolong Tea
Puer Tea
Biluochun Tea
Dishes:
West Lake Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce
Longjing Prawns
Wuyutai Tea Shop 吴裕泰茶庄
Address:44 East Fourth Street North, Dongcheng District, Beijing
北京东城区东四北大街44号
Website: http://en.wuyutai.com/default.php
Wuyutai Tea shop was originally founded in 1886 by Wu Xiqing and developed to be a chained shop with 11 stores. It was well known for selling high-class teas to the wealthy and upper class.
Wuyutai tea shop of today has become one of the biggest tea companies in China because of its high-quality teas, and good services. The teashop is still picking, baking and assorting jasmine teas on its own, which is very popular among customers in particular due to their variety, excellent quality and reasonable prices.
In the Wuyutai Tea Shop, you can take a cup of tea, and buy all kinds of Chinese tea in packed boxes, including jasmine teas, green tea, black tea and oolong tea. And when you are there, don’t miss the ice cream in flower tea flavors and tea flavors!