Lao She Teahouse, located on the southwest of Tiananmen Square, is named after Lao She, a renowned writer known as “people's artist”.
It was created in 1988 bysome zhiqings (“educated young people” sent to rural areas for “reeducation” during the Cultural Revolution) who had returned to Beijing led by Yin Shenxi, a pioneer reformer of commerce in Beijing. Today the teahouse has become a comprehensive cultural enterprise which blends Chinese opera, food, tea, and Beijing culture, and which features various forms of teahouses found in old Beijing, such as the plain teahouse, the teahouse-restaurant, the roadside tea stall, and the teahouse with story tellers.
The three-story teahouse has a business area of 2,600 square meters. The Qianmen Sihe Teahouse on the second floor follows the layout of Siheyuan (Quadrangle Dwelling) in Beijing, and combines the styles of north and south China. Whereas the main house follows the traditional style, the wing rooms are of varied designs, blending traditional art and modern technology. Lush grass and singing birds add to its natural gracefulness and liveliness.
Every day, in the theatre on the third floor you may watch performances of traditional folk arts, such as Peking opera, folk shows, acrobatic, magic, and face switching. The shows are accompanied by such refreshments as famous kinds of tea, court and local snacks, and Beijing-style delicacies. In the east of the third floor is the “Big-bowl Tea” Restaurant, which offers old-Beijing cuisine, specially fashioned tea-accompanying dishes, and “tea banquet”.
Since its open, Lao She Teahouse has received 47 foreign leaders, wives of ambassadors from over 40 countries, a number of celebrities, and over 3 million tourists from home and abroad. It has become a special window to Chinese culture and a tie of friendship between China and other countries of the world.
Address:No.3 Qianmen West Street, Xuanwu District, Beijing |
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