When it comes to the old teahouses in Chengdu, the first thing that most people think of is the Heming Tea House in People's Park. Founded in the twenties of the last century, Heming Tea House still retains the style of ancient teahouses in western Sichuan after changing hands several times, and is one of the oldest existing teahouses in Chengdu. Almost every day, a large number of customers come to Heming Tea House, where local tea drinkers continue the old tea drinking life, and foreign tourists regard it as a popular attraction to experience the leisurely market life in Chengdu.
Heming provides tea including bamboo leaf green, Mengding nectar and drifting snow that are standard in Chengdu teahouse, as well as common Tieguanyin, Qimen black tea, Biluochun, etc., which are priced between 12 yuan and 30 yuan, the price is not high, and the tea is average. There are also sweet and sour lemon teas and sweet chrysanthemum teas to choose from.
In the past 90 years, the Heming Tea House has undergone several renovations, largely retaining its original style, and is one of the first historical buildings in Chengdu to be listed for protection. The main body of the Heming Tea House is a two-storey western Sichuan folk building, with a banner hanging at the entrance, inscribed by the famous calligrapher Mr. Wang Jiazhen. Two corridors extend on both sides of the building, enclosing a huge space with hundreds of tea tables and chairs, making it one of the largest teahouses in Chengdu. The sinks at the entrance of the tea house are very interesting, and the body of the table is composed of a large copper teapot and a tea bowl, and the water flows out of the mouth of the pot and falls into the tea bowl, which is very special.
In addition to retaining the original architectural style, the Heming Tea House also uses the old tea utensils, such as gaiwan tea, bamboo chairs, low bamboo tables, tiger stoves, and copper teapots, which are all supplies for traditional teahouses, satisfying many nostalgic tea guests. Gaiwan tea is a kind of tea set with a lid, a tray and a bowl in the middle. When drinking tea, tea customers usually hold up the bottom of the tea with their left hand, lift the tea lid with their right hand, open the tea leaves, and blow the tea lightly before drinking, which has a heavier sense of ceremony. In the old days, the different ways of placing gaiwan tea also represented different meanings, and if you need to add water, put away the bowl, etc., except for a very few teahouses, no one uses this method anymore.
Bamboo chairs are mostly used in the old teahouses in Chengdu, Sichuan is rich in bamboo, and the ancients used local materials to make chairs. The bamboo chair has a high backrest and sloped armrests, which is very comfortable, with a cool texture and is not hot when sitting for a long time. The bamboo chair is not easy to deform, lightweight, and easy to drag, which is quite popular with Chengdu people. The tiger stove is a water boiling table, which resembles a tiger. In today's popularization of gas, electricity and natural gas, it is rare to see tiger stoves that use coal and wood chips to cook water. Some old teahouses such as Heming Tea House continue to use tiger stoves, more to maintain the style of old teahouses.
The fading tradition of Chengdu's old teahouses is not only the tiger stove and tea set code, but also the tea doctor. At present, most of the teahouses are self-service tea brewing, and the waiters only simply pour water to deliver tea, and there is no tea skill at all. In a set of standard procedures, the tea house holds a long-spouted copper teapot in one hand and a teacup in the other, and after singing and leaving, he pours boiling water into the teacup. This is an important performance project in the museum, and many tourists come to enjoy the performance process of the tea blender holding bowls, carrying pots, mixing tea, and roaring halls.
Due to the gathering of tourists, many ear pickers come here to solicit customers, disturbing many tea customers who have no intention of picking ears. According to customer feedback, the price of ear cleaning in Heming Tea House is high, the service is average, the experience is not good, and the cost performance is low. The People's Park where the Heming Tea House is located is full of greenery, rockeries and flowing water, and the environment is quiet, but the sanitary environment of Heming is not satisfactory, there are many customers, there are few waiters, and the garbage such as melon shell crumbs is not cleaned in time. Whether it is a weekday or a holiday, there are a lot of tea customers at the Heming Tea House, and the conversation is loud, and the cicadas are very noisy in summer, so customers who prefer quiet are not recommended to drink tea here. In addition, a small number of tea house waiters have an average attitude and mediocre professionalism, and it is often difficult to take into account all consumption levels in the tea recommendation process, which greatly affects the consumption experience.
