Modern China moves at a blistering pace. Its cities hum to the sound of jackhammers, mobile phones and ambition. Chengdu, in Sichuan, is widely regarded as an exception. Although the city is developing as quickly the Middle’s Kingdom’s other metropolises, its residents still take the time to stop and smell the jasmine, as it slowly sinks to the bottom of their flower tea. Chengdu has more teahouses and tea gardens than Shanghai, despite having a population half its size. Claire van den Heever takes us to a few.


Wenshu Temple
 

Wenshu Temple’s tea garden was alive with chatter. Old men were peeling orange skins with their long baby finger nails, and scattering the peels on the floor. People cracked sunflower seeds in their mouths, and spat the stripy shells out swiftly. The tea house attendants stood a few feet away and poured streams of hot water from copper teapots into blue and white tea cups, shaped like little bowls. The cups rested on matching saucers, and wore dainty lids. They had been refilled countless times that day, and must have contained very watery tea. In traditional Chinese tea houses, a ticket that costs between Y2 and Y10 buys you an entire day’s worth of tea, regardless of how weak it will eventually become. But the locals don’t come for the tea; they come for the social occasion.

Continue reading on Holiday Fu: The Tea Gardens of Chengdu.