Category: Chinese Tea Culture

China is the homeland of tea. The Chinese minority ethnic groups not only have their own tea customs, but also formed their own unique tea culture.

Oolong tea, also known as green tea or semi-fermented tea, is a unique Chinese tea variety with distinctive characteristics. It is said that the inventor the tea was named "Oolong", hence the name of the tea.

Tea house (Chaguan), a special place for the Chinese to have tea, is very popular in the Yangtze River area; it is mostly called tea house (Chalou) in provinces like Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, and is called tea pavilion (Chating) in Beijing and Tianjin of north China. Historically, there are some other names for it, such as Chaliao, Chafang, Chasi, Chashe, Chayuan, Chawu and Chashi. Although these names vary, the forms and contents are basically the same.

Xihu Longjing Tea, a famous kind of green tea in China, grows in the mountains around the Xihu Lake (West Lake) of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, including areas like Lion Mount, Longjing Mount, the Wuyun Mountain and Hupao. Depending on the differences of producing areas’ partial ecological environments and producing technologies, Xihu Longjing Tea can be classified into three kinds, “Lion Mount Longjing”, “Meiwu Longjing” and “Xihu Longjing”, among which, the first one produced in Lion Mount is best in quality.