A Tea Addict's Journal

Maliandao Geography – an update

September 10, 2010 · 7 Comments

A long time ago, I posted something about Maliandao Geography, mostly to help others going to Beijing to navigate themselves around the street where they sell all things tea.  After this recent trip, I noticed that the old map needs a little update.

So, what changed?

Well, first of all, the Beijing Pu’er Chadu (black on the old map) is no more.  It’s dead, gone, turned into something unrecognizable.  Those stores all left, I guess, to go somewhere else.

Instead, we have two shiny new tea malls that are now BEFORE the all important Carrefour (purple and orange).  Now, what I said about the Carrefour still stands — anything that shows up before the Carrefour is for tourist only, and the serious tea buyer should not bother with them, because they are more expensive and so you will probably not find your best prices there.  Keep walking.

There are also two newer (although not new — newer only relative to my last post) places that sell tea that are slightly more out of the way.  Brown is Tianfuyuan tea mall, which you can only get to if you walk through the Beijing Tea Corporation mall (or through a nondescript alley with shops).  That’s where Xiaomei, my friend, has her shop.  It’s now a little shabby, and honestly, I thought she should move, but then, she seems to be doing all right, so I’m sure there’s business there still.

The other place that is newer is the Beijing tea trading center, coloured pink here.  I walked by, walked around, and didn’t see much that I like.  However, I didn’t see much that I liked anywhere in Beijing this time, so that’s really not saying much.

I went on a rainy day, and it was not very crowded at all – in fact, it was positively dead.  At Chayuan, only about half the shops were actually open.  I was told that on sunny days business is much better, and that I went on a bad day.

So that’s that — an update to Maliandao.  Just remember — walk past the Carrefour.  It’ll pay off.

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7 responses so far ↓

  • HobbesOxon // September 10, 2010 at 2:49 am | Reply

    Xiaomei’s mall was very hard to find, this time, for some reason. Did you see that the mall in front of hers had a new Lin’s Ceramics shop? It’s quite a small place, by the front door. The range was small, but the quality was decent.

    I made repeated visits to Chayuan during last winter and it was similarly dead, during both weekdays and week-ends, although most of the shops within it were open. That said, I can’t remember ever seeing more than a handful of other customers in that vast labyrinth…

    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

  • Anonymous // September 10, 2010 at 11:52 am | Reply

    When were you in Beijing? I just came back last week…

  • MarshalN // September 10, 2010 at 11:53 am | Reply

    @HobbesOxon – 

    Yes, I did see the Lin’s ceramics shop. There are never very many people in Chayuan during the day — you have to go at night, where it’s a little more busy. Even then, it’s a bit dead.

    I was there for two days in late August

  • Anonymous // September 10, 2010 at 12:56 pm | Reply

    I just came back 2 weeks ago!

    I wonder how much the online trade will eventually affect local tea businesses, even in China. A friend told me nowadays the turn over rate of Maliandao teashops is very high.

  • Anonymous // September 20, 2010 at 4:12 am | Reply

    This is fantastically helpful. I’ve been wandering around yesterday and didn’t know where the heck was Puer Chadu.

    Incidentally do you recommend any other places there?
    I also went to the Tea expo at CNCC and talked with a some vendors but didn’t buy anything.

  • Frenzied development | A Tea Addict's Journal // July 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm | Reply

    […] can see it on the ground.  Maliandao, which I discussed five years ago when I first got there and updated last year, is no longer the backwater shopping street it used to be.  Two new roads have opened […]

  • Notes from Beijing | A Tea Addict's Journal // June 16, 2014 at 2:55 am | Reply

    […] Maliandao is growing up – literally. There’s another one or two new tea malls that have popped up […]

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