Sichuan is a huge area, mostly a basin surrounded by mountains. Its agricultural land is immensely rich and productive, and the province has been a major producer of rice throughout the history of Chinese civilization. It is geographically isolated by the mountains and this isolation may have given rise to the slower pace of Sichuan’s lifestyle.
Sichuan people are also devoted to food, even more so than people in other parts of the country, if that can be believed. Drinking tea goes well with the region’s spicy food and it is no coincidence that Sichuan is an important tea growing region.
Sichuan cuisine is famous, and Chengdu food is cheap and delicious, although if you can’t eat spicy food, you should avoid most of the Sichuan dishes except for the excellent tomato and fried eggs. Hotpot is of course a staple of the Sichuan diet, and while it is viewed as an invention of Chongqing, it is available in every corner of Chengdu city.
Chinese hotpot is a metal pot of boiling water filled with spices and vegetables. You order plates of raw meat and then cook the food in the boiling water. A bowl of sesame sauce is provided into which you can dip your cooked food. Most hotpots are chili hot, but you can also order a yin-yang split pot, with the water partitioned – hot on one side and mild on the other.
Young foreigners are quite a common sight because Chengdu is a key transit point for hub of backpackers heading through Sichuan for various other destinations, including Tibet and Yunnan.
In Europe, people gather in cafes and pubs. In Chengdu, the teahouse serves the same purpose. Chinese teahouses used to be a key part in the life of all Chinese towns and cities, but nowadays, the tradition remains strong in Sichuan province and not many other parts of the country.

Teahouse Town
Chengdu’s teahouses fall roughly into three groups. The first and most basic is the small teahouse in the narrow alleys of the older part of the city where the style of the architecture and furniture is simple. Next comes the open-air teahouse, found along the banks of the rivers that intersect the town, and in the public parks where local people go during the day and into the evening to relax and chat. Finally, is the teahouse which is a largee-scale entertainment venue, with a courtyard and pond, and a stage or pavilion with performances of Sichuan Chinese opera. The ‘Garden of the Coming Happiness’ is alas one of the few teahouses of the third category that remains.
These teahouses also reflect a principle of tea drinking a way to achieve harmony with nature and one’s surroundings. The teahouses in parks and temple courtyards have particularly prospered in recent years.
The teahouses tend to have names associated with flowers, animals or tranquility. The aim of the name is to achieve a poetic feeling, and a sense of oneness and harmony with Nature.

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