In Chengdu, you can find teahouses everywhere, whether it’s in a busy street, a run-down alley, a park or even a university campus. No matter which teahouse you enter, you will get a real feel for just how unique Chengdu really is: with bamboo chairs, square tables, tea set, stove, teapot, and even the trotting waiters.
Chengduers love drinking tea, so there are a lot of teahouses in Chengdu. However, finding the most original or traditional teahouses can be difficult. In Pengzhen Town of Shuangliu County on the Western Sichuan Plain, there is an ancient teahouse which has a history of more than a hundred years. It is claimed that this teahouse was called Guanyin Pavilion before the Cultural Revolution.
The ancient teahouse has a cozy ambience and a simple layout. People here also appear calm and relaxed. This is a real place for drinking tea. A cup of tea won’t cost you very much. The shop’s small square wooden tables, tiger-shaped stoves three-piece topped tea sets have remained unchanged in the shop’s hundred-year history.
The whole image is reminiscent of the long history of the teahouse: the old-fashioned timber-framed building roofed with grey tiles; the bamboo fences partly seen over the dirty walls; the uneven floor made of thick layers of mud; the stoves used for boiling water and the bamboo chairs, whose paint has already faded.
The teahouse belongs to Zhao, whose entire family lives in Pengzhen Town. The shop is usually managed by Zhao’s son and daughter-in law. During busy times, older members of the family and children will also come to help out.
The down-to-earth nature of the people and the tea house’s easy-going environment are reminiscent of the ancient Chengdu spirit and representative of the long history and unique culture of the Western Sichuan Plain.
The customers of this teahouse are also “old”. They sip the tea between puffs of their cigarettes: some are savoring the flavor alone, some are chattering while others are play cards. These activities have become part of the customers’ life. Though ordinary, it is delightful, bringing the mind and imagination back to ancient times.
No matter who sits down and orders a cup of tea and a pile of melon seeds, they become customers and are treated equally.
There are no status or identity differences between customers. They are all friends gathering here because of they love tea and enjoy life together
Here, you don’t have to think about your status, your finances or the house you long for. You can release yourself from burdens of a busy life and lighten your heavy heart.
Genuine ancient teahouses don’t have a strict criterion for tealeaf quality. From Longjing tea, Huangshan Maofeng tea (both high-quality teas), to ordinary flower tea, all are welcome. What really matters are the comfortable atmosphere and the congenial spirit when people get together and chat about all sorts of issues.
The tea leaves unfold in the boiling water and give off a scent in rising steam. After a while, the whole room is brimming over with the pleasant aroma of the tea. At this moment, everything in the world comes to a stop to savor the tea.
In a Chengduers’ perspective, drinking tea and chatting are inseparable. Their chatter covers everything, meandering on endlessly.
Unfortunately, this tea house has been included among a list of condemned buildings. This witness to the history and culture of ancient Chengdu will be erased from the map forever.
