Tea house def­i­n­i­tion from Wikipedia: “A tea house or tea­room is a venue cen­tered on drink­ing tea. Its func­tion varies widely depend­ing on the cul­ture, and some cul­tures have a vari­ety of dis­tinct tea-centered houses or par­lors that all qual­ify under the Eng­lish lan­guage term  tea house or tea room.”

Dur­ing my years in Bei­jing, I have found numer­ous tea shops, where I tasted teas and bought them, went to tea mar­kets and var­i­ous tea venues where I could con­tem­plate the tea cer­e­mony and the art of tea drink­ing. But never have I been touched by so much pas­sion and love of shar­ing then by Guyi Tea House.

Guyi tea house is nes­tled in Houhai, in a hum­ble space of 2 floors, over­look­ing the Hutongs. It’s a com­mu­nal and cul­tural plat­form. It is not a com­mer­cial place.

The 1st time, I enjoyed watch­ing and lis­ten­ing to my friend’s pri­vate Guqin class.A lady sat next time me to pour us tea.

The 2nd time, I was invited with my friend Peter, to taste the Heaven City Tea, their own sig­na­ture tea grown in the moun­tain, in a pure and nat­ural envi­ron­ment. The monk came to the city, to share his tea, and I was among the priv­i­leged guest to drink the tea poured by him for 3 hours straight.

Peter’s Guqin mas­ter also showed us his Hutong stu­dio where he makes the Guqin. He showed us how to carve the wood, a wood that is 200 years old!

And the 3rd time, I had tea and lis­tened to the Bei­jing Opera class that was being held upstairs. The class just costed 10rmb, and I hap­pily paid my con­tri­bu­tion. I enjoyed the sound of the class, while I was down­stairs drink­ing tea and choos­ing ceram­ics to take home.

Guyi Tea House gives a mean­ing to the word ” tea house”. They always treated me like a friend of the house. To me, it is a paren­the­sis in my busy urban life, a moment of peace and wis­dom, pro­tected from the hus­tle and bus­tle of the city. Each time I stepped in, I left inspired and incred­i­bly uplifted. 

The peo­ple who work there are good peo­ple, pas­sion­ate and very hospitable.

GUYI TEA HOUSE– Tel: 83224869

I wouldn’t be able to explain how to get there, the best is to call and ask the per­son to explain the taxi dri­ver. The tea­house is in Houhai. They also host cal­lig­ra­phy class, Bei­jing Impe­r­ial Food Class, and much more.

Maika ENDO

Lis­ten to the beau­ti­ful music by Jor­dan Thomas Mitchell: ” Tea House” using sounds from Guyi Tea House with birds singing, Guqin, water foun­tain and more…