Wuzhong brews up a reputation for morning tea
Print Edition
For over 300 days a year, 65-year-old Ma Jun starts his day at a restaurant that serves morning tea, a local tradition similar to Cantonese dim sum or Western brunch.
鈥淚 chat with friends and eat through the whole morning,鈥 said Ma Jun.
Morning tea is a ritual for many locals in Wuzhong, a city in the middle of northwest China鈥檚 Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Wuzhong was a bustling trade city on the ancient Silk Road, with the majority of its population engaging in trade or related businesses. Today, it is an important node on the new Silk Road Economic Belt.
Ningxia people have their own way of drinking tea, a beverage favored in China since ancient times. Unlike most regions that brew tea leaves in a teapot, residents in Ningxia serve it in a covered tea bowl, something like a tureen. The tea is a mixture of eight ingredients and is called babao cha, or 鈥渆ight treasures tea.鈥
鈥淟ocal ethnic minorities have been boiling tea leaves with red dates, wolfberries and dried fruit since the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907),鈥 said Jing Hongjun, secretary-general of the Wuzhong restaurant association. 鈥淎 gulp of babao tea was refreshing for merchants traveling on the Silk Road.鈥
But the modern practice of morning tea in Wuzhong only emerged after hand-pulled noodles, a popular street food in Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province, conquered the hearts and stomachs of foodies in Ningxia in the 1980s.
Yang Defu was among the first to open a hand-pulled noodle restaurant in Wuzhong.
鈥淭he restaurant was just a stand in the beginning but it soon expanded into an eatery of 20 plus square meters. But still, it was flooded by customers every day,鈥 said Shan Xiaodong, Yang鈥檚 son-in-law.
The noodle restaurants later began providing babao cha, side dishes and popular snacks such as potstickers and steamed stuffed buns for customers, facilitating the rise of Wuzhong鈥檚 morning tea culture.
Now, as a way to kill time or as an easy-going approach to business meetings, babao cha, hand-pulled noodles, several kinds of pastries and a few side dishes have become the go-to choice and an integral part of daily life for many locals.
There are over 500 morning tea restaurants across Wuzhong, generating a combined annual revenue of 1 billion yuan (US$155.3 million) last year and accounting for one-fifth of the total revenue in the catering sector, according to Ding Xuebao with the city鈥檚 business and investment promotion bureau. The morning tea industry has also created over 10,000 jobs.
Ma Baojun, the owner of a time-honored morning tea brand, said the main customers on weekdays are retired individuals and businesspeople, while on weekends, seats are usually unavailable without a reservation. 鈥淢orning tea is not only a part of catering culture, it has also become a popular social practice among the younger generations,鈥 said Ma Baojun.
Even tourists from thousands of kilometers away are drawn to Wuzhong for morning tea. Over 500,000 customers sampled morning tea in Wuzhong during the five-day May Day holiday.
鈥淲e鈥檙e drafting morning tea criteria and training more practitioners to make it Wuzhong鈥檚 signature product,鈥 said Jing.
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