Go to yum cha in a Guangzhou teahouse

What the experience is

Visitors say they are going for dim sum. Cantonese say they are going to yum cha, which means to drink tea. The small dishes that arrive in bamboo steamers are an accompaniment. The occasion is the tea, the table and the people round it, and it can last all morning.

The custom took shape in Guangzhou in the middle of the nineteenth century, when cheap establishments offering tea and a place to sit grew into teahouses of several floors. It travelled with Cantonese emigrants to Hong Kong and round the world, but Guangzhou is where to see it at home, in the old teahouses of the Liwan district and the hotels on and near Shamian Island.

The waiter asks first what tea the table will drink: dark pu’er, a roasted oolong, a mild white tea, jasmine or chrysanthemum. Then the food is ordered, in most places on a sheet on which the table marks its choices. A typical order begins with the classics: prawn dumplings in a translucent wrapper, open dumplings of pork and prawn, steamed buns filled with barbecued pork, and egg tarts. Then come rice-noodle rolls, turnip cake and sticky rice in a lotus leaf. Many tables take steamed things first, fried things after, and sweets last, but there is no single rule.

The etiquette

It is customary to pour for others before yourself, beginning with the eldest. When someone pours for you, tap the table with two bent fingers; the gesture stands for a bow. When the pot is empty, leave the lid ajar, and it will be refilled without a word. Customs vary from one teahouse and one family to another, and staff will help a visitor who gets it wrong.

When to go

Yum cha is a morning and midday meal. The best time is before eleven, or on a weekday. On Sundays whole families go, and tables are shared.

Why OKYTO recommends it

It is one of the most sociable meals in China and easy to join.