Chengdu has pandas, and pandas are great, but the thing I actually think about when someone mentions the city is the tea. Specifically, sitting in a teahouse for four hours doing very little. It sounds like a waste of a travel day. It is not. It might be the best thing you do in Sichuan.

Why teahouses matter here

The teahouse is a Chengdu institution, older than any of the tourist attractions around it. These are not cafes with a design scheme and a Wi-Fi password. They are big, open rooms and courtyards with bamboo chairs, low tables, thermos flasks of hot water, and an unspoken rule that nobody will hurry you along.

Retired men play cards. Someone clips their nails. A woman delivers a plate of sunflower seeds to your table without being asked. Cold tea is topped up all afternoon from a long-spouted kettle. You pay once and stay as long as you like.

The ones worth your time

People's Park teahouse

Heming Teahouse in People's Park is the famous one and it deserves the reputation. It is right in the middle of the city, under a canopy, next to a pond. A cup of tea runs about 20 to 30 CNY and comes with unlimited refills. Go between 9 and 11am for the calm, or mid afternoon if you want the full scene.

The park around it is worth an hour too. There is a matchmaking corner where parents advertise their adult children on sheets of paper pinned to umbrellas, and the earnestness of it is genuinely moving. Then there is the ear cleaning, which is exactly what it sounds like: someone with a pile of metal tools will clean your ears in public for a small fee. I declined. Several of my friends did not. Reports vary.

Pengzhen old teahouse

This one is outside the city, about 40 minutes by car, in a small town that has changed less than you would expect. The teahouse is a single large room with a concrete floor, wooden beams and tables that have seen decades of use. It is where old men from the town spend their mornings. The tea is cheap, the atmosphere is completely without pretension, and I did not see another foreign visitor the whole time I was there.

If you want the version of this culture that has not been polished for tourists, this is it.

How to do a teahouse day

The temptation is to treat it as a quick stop between sights. Resist that. The whole point is the length of it. My usual pattern:

• Arrive around 10am, order jasmine tea, sit down.
• Spend the first hour doing nothing in particular and letting your shoulders drop.
• Order a bowl of noodles or a plate of dumplings when the teahouse has them, or step out for something nearby.
• Sit for another two hours. Read, write, watch the card game, whatever you feel like.
• Leave when the light goes gold.

Total spend is usually under 60 CNY for the whole day, food included. It is the cheapest entertainment in the city and one of the most memorable.

What to order

Jasmine is the default and it is lovely. If you want something more local, ask for bamboo leaf tea, which is light and slightly bitter and what a lot of the older regulars drink. If you are offered a covered cup, that is standard, you drink from the lid, and no, nobody expects you to get it right the first time.

A few things to know

Bring cash, or make sure your phone payment works, because not every teahouse takes cards. Small notes are useful for the sunflower seeds and the ear cleaning.

Nobody speaks much English, and that is part of the appeal. Point at what the next table has and smile. It works.

Do not be surprised if a stranger sits down and starts a conversation. In Chengdu this is normal and friendly rather than intrusive. On my last visit a retired teacher spent twenty minutes explaining the card game to me, which I still cannot play.

Pairing it with the rest of Chengdu

A teahouse morning works beautifully with an afternoon at the Wenshu Monastery, which is a short walk from People's Park and has its own vegetarian restaurant. Or take the teahouse day and pair it with a panda base visit the following morning, which requires an early start and is best done well rested.

Chengdu rewards the traveller who slows down. The teahouses are where that happens. Give one a full afternoon and you will understand why people say they came for the pandas and stayed for the tea.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.