The old teahouse of the Sichuan school of old teahouse

Under the influence of the Ba Shu culture characterized by the closed and static nature of the agricultural civilization, the Chengdu Old Teahouse is a type with very prominent regional characteristics. In historical records, China's earliest old teahouse originated in Sichuan. As early as the early Republic of China, there were already 454 old teahouses in Chengdu, the most in Sichuan, and the city with the largest number of old teahouses ever. In terms of spatial pattern and service mode, Chengdu old teahouse has its own distinctive characteristics. Since the reform and opening up, Chengdu old teahouses have seen considerable changes, and their development has gone through three phases of change: The public-private partnership that started in the 1950s made the number of Chengdu's old teahouses decrease significantly, but Chengdu people's habit of soaking in the old teahouses didn't change much, and the number of tea drinkers in the old teahouses never shrank. Chengdu old teahouse recovery period, began in the 1980s, initially a large number of traditional old teahouses opened their doors to welcome customers, and soon, the number of old teahouses back to more than 600. During this period, the spatial pattern of Chengdu's old teahouses still continued the old teahouses of the early days of the "street store", "temple in the alley", "riverside shed", "between the trees". The old teahouse pattern still continues the old tradition of "shop on the street", "temple in the alley", "shed by the river", and "land between trees". Inside the old teahouse, the most representative furnishings are bamboo chairs, small square tables, "three head" bowls, copper pots and tiger stoves. In the old teahouse, the service of the hallkeeper is mixed tea "tea doctor", each with excellent skills, which is the most characteristic form of service of the old teahouse in Chengdu. In the old teahouses, a single flower tea is served. In Sichuan, with the business function of the city's old teahouse began in the mid-1990s. 1995, around the "Sentosa", "Cultivation Garden", "Green Tea" and a number of old teahouses opened in Chengdu. In 1996, when the Sichuan Tea Culture Association was established in Chengdu, there were close to one hundred modernized old teahouses in the city. Different from the traditional old teahouse, these old teahouses from the open air into the indoor, no longer continue the open style of the old teahouse, change the store for the teahouse, the interior decoration has changed the traditional old teahouse simple and tends to luxury, furnishings, more Western style, in addition to the French rattan chairs, many of the old teahouse set up a piano. Tea provided by the old teahouse is no longer limited to flower tea. At this time, the tea ceremony also began to appear in Chengdu. Chengdu city also set up a tea team, in the major old teahouse performances, the tea ceremony prevails. But the good times didn't last long, and in the following two to three years, traditional mahjong swept through almost all of Chengdu's old teahouses, and the art of tea tended to fall silent in the old teahouses. At the end of the 20th century, with the development of real estate industry, the introduction of foreign capital and the rise of hotels and restaurants, Chengdu old teahouse development began to diversify. Some of the theme culture suitable for the old teahouse business, such as the salt road culture, Tibetan culture, philatelic culture, etc. into the old teahouse, at the same time, chess and cards, foot baths, saunas and other business projects have been introduced into the old teahouse. 2001, the Sichuan Tea Culture Association began to plan the theme of the tea ceremony and tea culture activities. Through the tea competition and old teahouse selection, it excavates and promotes tea culture, guides the development of old teahouses, resists undesirable phenomena, and promotes the benign development of the old teahouse industry. 2008, the number of old teahouses in Chengdu doubled compared with that in 2001, reaching 6,000 old teahouses, of which the old teahouses that purely sell tea accounted for 30%, and the "chess and cards old teahouses" accounted for nearly 40%. 40%.