Sightseeing And Shopping In Beijing: Yixing Purple Clay
Produced in the town of Yixing, purple clay is seen as the most suitable of natural materials for teapot production. There’s a place not far from the Beijing Guohong hotel that you just can’t miss.
Because of the unique purple clay, such teapots have good air permeability but are rock solid. So they can hold the natural fragrance of your tea and allow the flavor to stick around for a long time.
On my visit to Chayuan Tea City at the south end of Maliandao Tea Street near the Guohong Hotel, I found some user-friendly purple clay tea cups in a shop (No. A2-10) named Qingyi, which literally means “Affection” in English. I thought it was such a cute name for a shop!
I stopped at the shelves and took in the sight of their amazing tea sets. In the end, a series of Chinese Zodiac animal tea cups caught my eye. Because of my strong curiosity, I asked a lot of questions about the cups, and the kind assistant told me that all of them were designed by the shop keeper, Mr. Xu.
I picked up a chocolate-colored one with a miniature rooster on the cover. When I opened the lid, to my surprise, I found a purple clay strainer stuck in the middle. Another miniature rooster stood inside.
You can pick it up and put the tea leaves in the bottom of the cup. Because of its tiny holes, water can pass through it and fill up the cup, and there’s no need to worry about drinking any floating tea leaves.
All the prices of their tea cups are very agreeable, all less than $20. The price of the teapots depends on the quality. And you can also find a lot of different kinds of accessories for a tea ceremony, like little tea pets, and some famous Chinese tea too.
Another shopkeeper can speak English very well, and he’s happy to help customers learn the culture and history of Chinese tea and teaware in Beijing.
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