Tea houses have many sizes and names. People come to a tea house congruous to his social standing and his interest in order to have some fun and a good rest in addition to some cupful of tasty tea. Early in years Kaiyuan of Tang Dynasty (c.720), many tea stores sold cooked tea. Passersby dropped coins on the counter and help themselves to a gladsome cup of tea. This is the preliminary form of tea house.

As time came to the Song Dynasty, shops solely selling beverage tea were common in cities and roadside. The higher-grade shops kept their interior decently decorated with pictures drawn by well-known painters on walls and fresh flowers placed on the tables. Other teahouses allowed customers to form a singing party or hire party or hire female singers to entertain guests. There also appeared club-form teahouse, the customers of which gradually confined to members of a single trade. Story telling started from the tea-houses. It laid the foundation of many interesting story books that became best sellers in China for many centuries; and of the Peking Opera, the scripts of them are derived from the Song and Yuan story-telling.

The Manchurian Qing Dynasty saw more tea-houses in each city. In the old Beijing, tea-houses were in every main inhabitant quarters. Singers and rtory-tellrs performed at the tea-houses. The customers had a double enjoyments-sipping and listening.

Musical tea-houses and open-air tea-houses in public parks appeared during the 20th century. More tea-houses are there in provinces Sichuan and Yunnan than in other places. The chief waiters in Sichuan tea-houses could do an amazing job of poring boiling water into a tea-cup in a clear-cut way which would astonish on-lookers. This job, a special daring skill, had been recorded in a documentary film.

The tour ists in Guangzhou and Hong-kong will notice the abundance of tea-houses which furnish delicate food and green tea especially at the break-fast tables. Such delicatessen induced people to have formed a habit of “going to tea-houses” as a daily event.

The countryside tea=house carry an indigenous character. Peasants call them the “home of peasants”. There, the country people drink tea, take a rest, liken to broadcast and enjoy performances. Tea-houses in Taiwan are made to “tea art” houses which take pain to conduct rites in preparing tea – a renewal of the old Chadao (rite of tea drinking).
Tea party – a new thing appeared recently in China at which the gathering of people hold adhoc talks amid tea, candy and some cakes on the tables. Instead of serving banquet dinner and wine toasting, this is an auspicious way wine toasting, this is an auspicious way to hold gatherings of friendship nature. Gathering such as wedding ceremony, welcoming and farewell parties, informal cultural discussion, small scale symposium, news proclamation, guests reception, especially the new year and other festival celebrations are the usual occasions to take place at a tea party. The party thus held gives an air of simplicity and decency, agreeableness and liberality.