Chinese Teahouse

If you want to learn more about Chinese tradition and custom, the teahouses scattered in Chinese city are most worthwhile to visit. They are not large in size but neat in configuration, they look like pergolas to some extent. And the tea served there vary from green tea to black tea, along with local delicacies and deserts. One may come in the early morning and order a pot of tea, chat and enjoy the warm sunshine at the same time, until it closes in twilight. Refills are also free of charge as long as the cup is left open.
The practice of tea drinking can be dated back to as early as the period of Three Kindoms (220-265 A.D). Though the teahouse appeared later in the history, the particular norms and customs accumulated and took shape over long periods of time. People pay special attention to the teapots, tea leaves and water.
Chinese believe that exquisite utensils should comply with delicate food. The same goes with teapots. The famous "zi sha hu" is made of a special pottery clay, purplish black in color and antique in design. Carved on it are some inscriptions, paintings and poems. The speciality is that it can preserve tea leaves in their original flavor and color. It is said the longer the pot is used, the more scent it gives out.
The carefully selected tea leaves and water are also indispensable. The tea leaves, picked before the solar term of Rain Water, are preferred, and then processed by hand. River water is never used, but water from spings or melted snow. When it snows in the winter, people in teahouses would shovel clean snow into huge water vats and store it for daily use. Drinking tea from this snow water can free people from heat rashes. No wonder the great poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty became a frequent visitor to teahouses when he was the regional chief in Hangzhou. And so many people form the habit of drinking tea day by day. It will certainly add a distinctive flavor to the scented tea, if you are seated in the traditional teahouse in such a picturesque place.