Shanghai's Tea City - DaBuTong

There’s a place in Shanghai call DaBuTong Tea City. Its a massive complex, with traditional ornamental Chinese architecture. It looks as if there is a large castle on the corner of this busy street. There are shops on the street side with a large multileveled mall on the inside.

Once inside the mall-like structure, you see lots of little tea shops selling loose leaf tea. You can purchase all different type of tea from all parts of China. There are a couple of Taiwanese tea specialists as well. Green tea is another matter, where other shops focus on.

At Tea City, you can also find all sorts of tea pots, tea cups, tea tools, and other interesting tea gadgets. Its fascinating to see all the different types of apparatuses that you can find at Tea City. You can see the expensive porcelain cups, bamboo components and ceramic wares.

I could spend a good afternoon browsing around, trying different teas, and checking out artistic tea wares. In fact, I would believe that Tea City would be an excellent place to bring a tourist to see and try teas. When I was there, I got a couple of bags of tea for less than RMB 150 – which I think is a pretty good deal.