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Lao She Teahouse, sitting at the center of Beijing not far from the Avic Hotel is where tourists get a taste of old Beijing life while sitting down for a good cup of tea.

Among its eminent customers are former U.S. president George H. Bush and Jordanian queen Rania.

Indeed, it has so much to offer that you may hope to move to Beijing enjoy everyday.

The building itself reminds you of a Qing dynasty loft, and as soon as you see it, you feel as if Beijing of the 19th century has come into life! The waiters are all in ancient outfits, and welcome you in with an old-time greeting that seasoned Beijingers say invoke the feel of old Beijing teahouses.

Despite being called a teahouse, Lao She is more like an entertainment venue, where some of China’s finest traditional performing arts are staged every night. Here you can watch acrobatics, Kung Fu shows, comic dialogue, Peking opera, ventriloquism, and the celebrated face-changing dance while enjoy a good cup of tea.

One of the biggest hit here is the well-known face-changing dance that comes from Sichuan province. By simply waving his arms and twisting head, a perform can change his mask in less than a second. The top performers can change their masks up to 30 times with the flick of a wrist. Because of difficulty of changing masks in such a short time, only a handful of artists can perform this dance today. There are also occasionally such performances around the Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel.

Another program that also amazes many is the ‘Han Deng Da Gu.Singers of this ancient folk art don’t sing in the normal way. They sing with such a holder in their mouths as is mounted with a few of burning candles.

They have to keep the candles in a good balance with the face muscles, otherwise the candles will fall. Singers of Han Deng Da Gu at the Lao She Teahouse are all masters. They sing so masterfully as if there is nothing in their mouth. Around China, there are only a very limited number of singers who are able to perform this ancient art because of the difficulty.

For tea lovers, there is even more to celebrate at Lao She Teahouse. Here waiters perform a kind of acrobatics to pour tea. The pot they use to pour tea is pretty bizarre: it has a long spout that can measure up to 1.5 meters. When serving, the waiter will first flip the pot around his body for a while, and then pour tea from the long and thin spot without splashing a drop. This is not a task that anyone can accomplish, and is much appreciated by the audience.

You can also enjoy a variety of Beijing snacks as you enjoy the shows. Rolling Donkey, or Lv Da Gun in Chinese, is a serving of glutinous rice balls stuffed with bean paste and eaten as a light meal. Millet Much, or Mian Cha in Chinese, is porridge with sesame and peanut butter. For your sweet tooth, Wan Dou Huang-small cakes made of beans-is always a good try.

Prices are reasonable; an average of 50-60 dollars should be enough to cover the fare of the shows, tea and a couple of snacks. The teahouse remains open from 14:00 to 22:00.

The Lao She Teahouse’s location in central Beijing is very convenient, and you can book a Beijing hotel here.

Beijingers take shopping the same way as athletes take their sports, they can’t be more serious. For several hundred years, Beijingers have been coming back to the same street of shops near the famous Beijing Emperor Hotel to buy their daily supplies and special items.

As an old Beijing saying goes: buy shoes at Nei Lian Sheng, hats at Ma Ju Yuan, fabrics at Rui Fu Xiang, and tea at Zhang Yi Yuan, which are all famous brands on this street, called Da Shi Lan. 

Right near the Forbidden City, it’s very easy to find Da Shi Lan and the shops that have been in business for hundreds of years.

Simply walk south from the Beijing Redwall Hotel, past Tian’anmen Square, and you’ll be there in five minutes.

The oldest commercial street in Beijing, Da Zha Lan began to boom in as early as Ming dynasty 600 years ago. Meaning ‘big fences’, the street might be as unique as it sounds.Nearly 600 years ago, worrying the rampant thefts in Beijing, an emperor ordered fences to be built to prevent the ill phenomenon. Residents in the Da Zha Lan area built fences that were higher and stronger, and thus people began to dub the area ‘big fences’ for easy reference.

Like it was hundreds of years ago, the street today is packed with teahouses, tailor shops, silk stores, theatres, restaurants, as well as handicraft stores. They cluster one after another in ancient buildings that immediately bring you back in time!

The Shops

Nei Lian Sheng

The 160-year old shop Nei Lian Sheng near the Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel sells handmade cloth shoes. Their shoes are famous for the excellent craftsmanship and unmatchable comfort.

In the past, the major patrons of shoes made in Nei Lian Sheng were offials working in imperial palace nearby. Not only were the shoes made with excellent finish, but the name suggested something that everyone hoped to fulfil: spiralling up to be the top-ranked officals.

Today, workers apply the same techniques used a hundred years ago to make customized shoes. The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was a big fan of Nei Lian Sheng and many of his shoes were made here.

Ma Ju Yuan

The hat shop Ma Ju Yuan was built in 1817. Starting from a small stall, the shop came to make the ‘red turf hat’ for the Qing dynasty government.

That was probably why old Beijingers took a hat made in Ma Ju Yuan as a showy object.

In the years that followed, the shop saw countless orders for hats from princes, religious figures, and foreign leaders. Even today, many people prefer to have a hat made to order in Ma Ju Yuan.

Rui Fu Xiang

Established in 1891, the shop sells all kinds of top-quality fabric: cotton, silk, woolen cloth, and so on.

The very first flag of P.R. China, the one raised in 1949 in its nation-founding ceremony, was actually a work of Rui Fu Xiang.

Tailors of the shop make some of the most gorgeous cheongsams you are likely to find in Beijing. Numerous foreign tourisits had fell in love with their products and ordered one of their own here for a showy display back home.

Zhang Yi Yuan

In 1900, Zhang Yi Yuan came into business. Ever since then, the shop has been some of the best tea you can find in Beijing. Each year, they purchased tea leaves directly from tea-growing farmers. They only sell tea grown and processed in a completely natural way.

They put into use some unique techniques to process tea leaves, which are sought after by many seasoned tea lovers. Now there special jasmine tea is sold at a low price and is worth trying.

Da Guan Cinema

Da Guan Cinema, Beijing’s first cinema, was established in 1905. You can even find it in the Guinness Book of Records as the cinema with the longest, uninterrupted cinema in the world.

Today, the cinema is pretty much in its original decor, and you can enjoy a film while sipping tea like people did several decades ago. Every day, increasing number of people flock in for the one-of-a-kind experience of watching movies in Beijing’s first and oldest cinema.