Around 60 expats gathered in Beijing at Maliandao, the city's renowned 'tea street,' on Saturday, June 27 to get a closer look at various tea sets during the latest session of Beijing Salon – Experience Beijing.

Anton Dienstel (R3), from Austria, appears happy during the tea party – Experiencing Chinese Tea Set Culture – a Beijing Salon party held on Saturday, June 27. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

The tea party was the second of its kind; a similar salon held last year more heavily focused on the process of making tea and the etiquette of tea drinking. Tea sets are an important component in Chinese tea culture, reflecting tea lovers' meticulous pursuit of a well-matched tea set for making different teas.

While China's tea culture is famous around the world, not many foreigners actually know much about it before they come to China. Among them is Anton Dienstel, an Austrian working at Austria's embassy in Beijing.

Dienstel said he knew "almost nothing" about Chinese tea, although he and people around him do drink tea in Austria. "We drink tea, but we make it differently. We are influenced by the English way of making tea," said Dienstel. He added that people typically use tea bags when drinking the warm beverage, and that Indian tea leaves were "much more popular."

Apart from observing different tea sets, these expats, including their children, got the chance to make a tea set from porcelain clay and paint them once the sets were baked hard.

The Beijing Salon – Experience Beijing has developed into a well-known brand of the Beijing municipal government since its first session held in 2013. So far, expats in Beijing have experienced various traditional Chinese culture forms including Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, martial arts, kite-flying and the temple festival.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)