While no one can refuse sitting back and enjoying a fragrant tea at home, people also love to go to teahouses. At teahouses, you can not only enjoy tea but also the companionship of others, combined with a bit of fun. Over time, teahouses have become part of the life and culture of many places across China. Beijing alone is host to over five hundred tea houses of various styles. Today, I'm going to take you to a teahouse in Beijing that has a strong Beijing folk culture flavor.

A loud announcement in the Beijing dialect from doormen dressed in traditional Chinese Changsam welcomes me to the Tianqiao Le teahouse. Round wooden pillars support the protruding balconies fashioned according to ancient Chinese style. Black and white documentary photos of old Beijing folk artists line the white wall. Beneath a small stage, ancient style rectangular tables and chairs occupy most of the hall that is this teahouse. This could have been a typical place a hundred years ago—some place our great-great-grandfathers might have been found sipping tea and eating snacks while watching a Peking opera performance—you know, a scene we often see in the movies.

Located near the old Tianqiao area in the southern part of Beijing, the teahouse's structure, a single building made entirely of wood, is said to have been built in 1933 by a warlord. Today, as much of Chinese Vaudeville is revived on its stage, this has also become an important spot for people to reminisce about old Tianqiao folk culture.

Having already spoken so much about Tianqiao let me brief you a little bit about this particular area of Beijing. The Tianqiao region was once the bustling hub of cultural and business activities in Beijing. Particularly, for centuries the area served as the center for grassroots entertainment. Tianqiao was filled with tea houses and opera houses, restaurants and small businesses, and street venders. It provided a place for folk artists to make a living—some ground on which they could present their most impressive skills. Zhang Fuyan, manager of the Tianqiao Le teahouse, spent his childhood on old Tianqiao's streets.

"In the old times, those who wanted to earn a living in Tianqiao had to possess special skills. That's why we've got so many great folk artists here who excel with their own individual specialty. Tianqiao is a cradle for folk artists. Crosstalk master Hou Baolin made his mark here and wrestler Bao Shanlin also become famous here."

However, as Chinese society has progressed, artists have moved into office buildings and businesses have moved into department stores. Tianqiao is no longer the way it used to be. Still, a lot of people still hold onto the idea of old Tianqiao. Zhang Fuyan said his tea house provides a fine outlet for those with certain nostalgia for the area, complete with Jasmine tea and traditional snacks.

"Every evening, we invite a lot of folk artists to perform typical Tianqiao Vaudeville. Our programs mainly aim to reflect the ancient grassroots culture of Tianqiao. Maybe some of our programs, for instance our acrobatic stunts, might not be as refined or as sophisticated as those featured on TV. Still, they capture the essence and unique flavor of old Tianqiao."

As always, today's evening performance begins at 7:30. It opens with a Fortune God dance.

"The Fortune god dance is a traditional opening that would have been used to begin any performance during the old times. And Tianqiao Le teahouse carries on this tradition. Business people believe this operatic dance of the fortune god, dressed in full costume, will bring good fortune to both businesses and audience members alike."

After this auspicious opening, the audiences are treated to a variety of performances —the Chinese style wrestling and acrobatics, a famous Peking opera aria "Concubine Yang Gets Drunk," sung by a female artist in a gorgeous opera consume, and also the Shuanghuang, a two-man act, where one guy speaks or sings while hiding behind the other guy who does the acting. Overall the performances here tend to be humorous; that is, except for the opera, which can only be described as elegant. This variety of art forms has a history as old as Tianqiao itself.

During an intermission, we're surprised by a group of people wearing cheongsam who walk up to us with a large basket of vegetables on each side of their shoulder poles. Each sings something different. They turned out to be vegetable peddlers. The notes of their songs actually describe the variety, freshness and price of each of their products. A century ago, people in the Tianqiao area sold their vegetables this way. It sounds like it must have been fun for both vegetable vendors and buyers.

I really had a good time watching the variety of performances featured at Tianqiao Le. Obviously, I'm not the only one who enjoyed the show. Zhou Guorong is a young man from Shanghai. This is his first time he has ever been to this kind of teahouse.

"I'd say this place has a strong Beijing local flavor, or rather, characterizes the folk culture that is particularly Beijing. There's the yo-heave-hi of vegetable peddlers around you, along with tea and snacks, all while you watch Peking opera and other programs on stage. All this is typical old Beijing flavor." 

And foreigners love it too.

"My name is Takisoya. I work for Sunyo Company, based in Yokohama city. We're reporting on Chinese culture and trendy spots in China. Actually, this theatre is very famous in Japan. Many people are interested in Chinese culture."

By the way, there's another attraction that I must mention here. That is, Tianqiao Le is also a kind of Mecca for crosstalk fans. Every week, from Thursday to Saturday, the teahouse holds cross-talk evening specials. With 20 Yuan, that's less than three dollars, you can enjoy a whole evening's worth of fun and humor, sometimes with the hottest crosstalk performer around, Guo Degang, who rose from anonymity to stardom in this very teahouse. But I must mention that if you want to spend an evening with Guo Degang, you need to book early, because tickets to witness his crosstalk are the most sought after of all Tianqiao Le's performances.

It seems Zhang Fuyan is right when he says his teahouse provides foreigners with a cultural feast, while it lets domestic customers come back to Old Tianqiao.

OK. Tianqiao Le teahouse is great. But this is not the only place you can go to get a view of the kaleidoscopic that is Beijing folk culture. Next time I'll take you to another teahouse similarly distinguished by the unique folk culture it features.