Teahouses in Chengdu

Chengdu has very good teahouses. Chengdu has not only many teahouses but also special ways of serving and drinking tea.

As soon as the visitors enter the teahouses，the waiters or waitresses will greet them with teapots and cups in their hands. The cups often have special covers and saucers（茶碟）. The covers can keep the water warm.

People who go to the teahouses are not all thirsty. Retired（退休的）people pay a little money to the teahouses and then sit there all day long to chat with others. Sometimes，people have parties in the teahouses. They eat fruit and sunflower seeds（瓜子）while they chat and return home when they are tired. Teahouses are also good places for people to talk about business. Some of the teahouses even have stages for performances，such as storytelling，cross talk and Sichuan Opera. Sometimes when people have a quarrel，a mediator（调解员）will bring them to the teahouse. After their problem is solved，the person who is wrong will pay for the tea. It is interesting that as soon as the quarrelers enter the teahouse and sit down to drink tea，they have almost calmed down. With the help of the mediator，their problem can be easily solved. Maybe we can say the teahouses have some special social functions.

If you ever go to the US and eat at a restaurant, there’s a very important difference you should know about. US people have a custom to give money to waiters and waitresses as a tip for their work.

But why is this? Shouldn’t waiters get paid enough by their bosses? Well, many waiters and waitresses get paid below the US minimum wage (最低工资) and work for tips to make up for that. According to the American travel website TripAdvisor, some states pay their servers (服务员) only $2.13 (about 14 yuan) per hour.

While no one makes you tip, if you are at a sit-down restaurant, it is usually expected that you tip your waiter 15 to 20 percent of what your bill is.

It’s not just for waiters either. Hotel maids, hairdressers and taxi drivers also usually work for tips. But it is much more expected to tip waiters.

The US hasn’t always had this tipping culture. In fact, people were mostly against it until the Prohibition Era (禁酒令时代) in the 1920s. The government said no one could sell alcohol (酒). Then, restaurants had trouble making enough money. So they started to ask people to tip their waiters.

This tipping culture has lasted through the years, but most people don’t like it. Some think restaurant bosses use it as an excuse to not pay their workers well. There isn’t much action being taken to make a change yet. So for now, be sure to tip your waiter when in the US.