Tea-drinking is a nation-wide custom in China. It is a daily necessity for the Chinese to have three meals and tea a day. When any guest comes, it is a rite to present a cup of tea to him/her. There are numerous teahouses in every town and city.

Tea-drinking is an art, a learning in China. In some places the way of making tea is very complicated. And the tea utensils-the teacup, tea saucer, teapot, tea tray-are works of art. Diansin(pastry), which goes with tea, both tasty and appealing, is loved not only by the Chinese but also by the people all over the world. There are hundreds of famous teas in China and there are a great many famous springs and streams to provide water to make tea. And the tea fields or tea mountains are also marvelous sights to add beauty to the scenery.

It is said that the literary artists of Ancient China were inspired either by tea or by wine. Those who were fond of wine were said to write in a passionate and heroic style; those who preferred tea tended to be sentimental and romantic. In China, one can discover that romantic spirit for oneself, enjoying a cup of imperial tea in a peaceful setting with good company.

It is Chinese traditional custom that a host has to serve a visiting guest a cup of tea firstly when he enters his house. A poem by Du Luei of Tang times shows an aspect of the function of tea:
“Guests coming in, in the cold, cold night , I serve cups of hot tea in the place of warm wine”.

How to serve the cup of tea to a visiting friend differs from place to place in China . In Jiangsu and Zhejing provinces, a porcelain cup or a glass tumbler is used to brew Longjing, Biluochun, Maojian or just ordinary green tea. Chrysanthemum tea is sometimes used in hot summer season to reduce the hot from outside. In the Spring Festival, in some well-off families the guests may be entertained with Yuanbao tea (gold-ingot tea) to two fresh olives submerged in the tea to bestow blessings. In the countryside, when people visit their relatives, they are usually served with “egg-tea”. To be frank it is not a kind of tea but a bowl of pouched eggs, so called to show the publicity of the idea of tea.

Hosts in the northern provinces usually entertain their guests with a cup of scented tea, which is very popular in the North China cities, while in the colder north-eastern provinces, the enthusiastic hosts would provide warm black tea with sugar added to ensure warmth.

In some coastal provinces such as Guangdong Province and Fujian Province , a pot of Oolong tea, congou tea or Pu-er tea is the usual treat. If you go to visit a family in the mountainous Xiushui County , you would be served a cup of “sesame-bean tea” (sesame seeds and baked beans scattered in the liquor which are to be chewed and swallowed on emptying the cup). Iced tea is even common in modern families as most homes are equipped with refrigerators.

Serving tea to guests is a common practice among the 56 ethnic nationalities in China . But in the border districts different tea is used. In Mongolia , a guest is entertained with yogh art tea. In the Jingpo family, you would be given baked tea(tea in water and baked in an oven to be made hot).

Chinese people use different kinds of tea wares with different kinds of teas. Green tea goes with white porcelain or celadon without a cover while scented tea with celadon or blue and white porcelain with a cover. Black tea goes well with purple clay ware with white inside glaze, or with white porcelain or warm colored wares or coffee wares. And Oolong tea is also excellent in purple clay ware. In other words, the harmonious combination of function, material, and color of tea ware is very essential to taste the essence of tea.

Tea wares mainly consist of ovens, teapots, cups, tea bowls and trays and so on.

Tea wares have been used for a long time in China . Tea drinking became more popular and pubic in the Tang Dynasty. In the palaces and nobles, tea wares made of metals were served and for civilians porcelain and earthen wares were commonly used. Tang scholars preferred green porcelain as the material of tea cups from Shaoxing , Zhejiang province. This kind of green porcelain looks like jade with elegant design and exquisite decoration. Since the true color of tea was set off completely and beautifully in this dainty cup (ou in Chinese), it was listed as Number One in Lu Yu's Tea Classics. Concerning about the function, the size and design of the cup well suited to the tea drinking habit of that time allowing for cooking tea powder with green onion, ginger, dates, tangerine peels and peppermint, then drinking the whole liquor as the same as the soup.

The preference for green porcelain or white porcelain was suddenly changed to black glazed teacups in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, tea bowls became common with the shape of an upturned bell. They were glazed in black, dark-brown, grey, grey/white and white colors. Then grey/white porcelain tea wares predominated in the Yuan Dynasty and white glazed tea wares became popular in the Ming Dynasty. Teapots which are made of porcelains and earth clay were very much in vogue during the middle of Ming Dynasty. Gilded multicolored porcelain produced in Guangzhou , Guangdong Province and the bodyless lacquer wares of Fujian Province emerged in the Qing Dynasty.

Due to the popular of tea drinking, various kinds of tea wares continued to develop, for example wares made of earthen clay, porcelains, copper, tin, jade, agata, lacquer, glass and ceramic, etc. All make a rich and colorful variety of tea wares in the history of tea-drinking in China . Among various kinds of tea wares, porcelain wares made in Jingdezhen , Jiangxi Province ranked first and brown earthen wares made in Yixing , Jiangsu Province took the top place for a long time. Tea-wares were not only highly valued in the domestic market but also exported and well received by foreign countries. In Japan a special name were given to the porcelains – “Pearlite grayish porcelains”.

On the basis of grey porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, the multi-colored porcelains appeared. The products were known of their fine and thin wall and exquisite forms as well as their colorful and vivid drawings. They were also highly valued at home and abroad. Thanks to the porcelains exported, China won its name as “Country of Porcelains” .

Production of white glazed porcelain tea-wares was thriving in Jingdezhen in the Qing Dynasty. Two new products-“enamel” and “translucent colors” to be decorated on the glaze of porcelains were innovated and the multi-colored enamel porcelain tea-wares had reached to their perfection for their thin body wall, crystal pure white and classic styles. They were used only in the royal palaces and could hardly be found in the houses of ordinary people at that time.