Under the cool shade of bamboo trees lies a teahouse on Hengshan Lu that offers the kind of peace and tranquility that momentarily takes you away from all the hustle and bustle of this dynamic city.

While most modern cafes in Shanghai are packed with people playing cards and Chinese chess, Tangyun Teahouse is one of the few places in the city where people can enjoy Chinese tea and tea ceremony.

Climbing up the wooden staircase to the second floor, the first thing that enters your view is an old wooden spinning wheel, which went out of date decades ago and is seldom seen in cities nowadays.

Sitting in a room with so much ancient furniture, pottery wares and musical instruments, people will naturally forget the noisy outside world and enjoy the tranquil innermost part.

Tea will relieve internal toxification in your digestive system while the peaceful ambience at the teahouse can help remove the "toxic waste" in people's minds and hearts.

Rumor has it that tea was discovered by Shen Nong Shi, or Holy Farmer, a legendary ruler who supposedly invented the plough and discovered the curative virtues of plants long ago.

When searching for edible plants, he tasted many leaves, fruits, vegetables and roots, some of which were poisonous. However, he wasn't affected by the poison because he drank some tea by chance, which was an antidote.

It is said that from then on Chinese people began to know the special functions of tea and began drinking it to clear the system of any impurities.

Tangyun Teahouse offers about 20 kinds of tea, including Kungfu Tea. The word Kungfu here refers to the elaborate procedure and varied steps to make and enjoy tea, not the Chinese martial arts. And it usually takes four people to enjoy the Kungfu Tea.

A waitress will come to your side with a set of small tea cups and pots, each with a different function. Some are used to contain tea leaves and some are for smelling the fragrance of the tea.

Boiling water is not used, because the heat destroys the aroma of the tea. Water at about 96 degrees centigrade, the most suitable temperature, is used.

Commonly, the tea that comes from soaking the leaves in water for the second time is the best for drinking.

The waitress pours hot water into a pot that contains tea leaves and shakes the tea pot about three times, which is called "three nods of the dragon and phoenix" to show respect to the guests.

Then she pours the tea into four slim cups and put one into your hand. Don't drink it - it's for you to savor the fragrance.

The waitress pours water into the pot a second time, shakes it for a while and then tips some into the small round cups for you to drink.

However, drinking tea requires elegance, not like guzzling beer. You should sip it slowly so that you can taste the real flavor of the tea.

Kungfu Tea is the most expensive one in the teahouse - about 200 yuan (US$24) for four people. Other prices vary according to different qualities of tea leaves. Tie-guan-yin, a kind of tea in Fujian Province, is the most expensive.

The teahouse has created some special teas served in transparent glasses.

Each tea has a poetic name, for example Jin Shang Tian Hua, or add flowers to the brocade, has green tea leaves threaded together into the shape of a flower, with three small chrysanthemums attached.

After soaking in water, the small chrysanthemums floated up, waving left and right in the glass, which looks beautiful and is similar to the original meaning of the Chinese idiom.

From the big glass window, you can see the bustling scene in the Bourbon Street Bar & Restaurant nearby. However, only the melody from the zheng (an ancient Chinese musical instrument) and the swaying slim bamboo trees beside the window accompany you while you spend a quiet and relaxed evening here.

(Shanghai Star 05/10/2001)