A Hundred Year Old Tea House

Brick tea, Uyghur music and a view of the street are the whole order here. The teahouse has stood in Kashgar's Old City for more than a century, held by the same family across generations, and it still works as a room where people sit for hours. People come for the tea, the food, the music and the performances, and it is treated as a cultural stop as much as a shop.

Brick tea in the Old City

Brick tea is the drink, and it is inseparable from the setting: a pot on the table, musicians playing, and the old city moving past outside. This is a teahouse rather than a cafe, so there is no espresso programme and no pour-over bar, and none is missed. The pleasure is the cup, the music, the street and a room that has watched Kashgar change around it, which is why brick tea is both the strongest order and the best way to understand the place.

The hour belongs to the room

The room is the main draw. Guests describe it as warm and comfortable, with decoration that belongs nowhere else and service that keeps the atmosphere unhurried. It is one of the most direct ways to feel daily life in the Old City, a district still lived and worked in by Uyghur families, where people drink tea, talk at length, play traditional instruments and gather around performances. The best visit is a slow one: sit, listen, watch, and let the pace of the neighbourhood set yours. It is also a well-known landmark and it draws crowds, so the evening tends to be the calmer time to find a table.

Order brick tea first

Start with brick tea, the one drink the teahouse is built around, and treat everything after it as texture: the century-old room, the music, the performances, the family history and the street life below. It is often called a witness to a century of history, which is why it turns up on Old City itineraries as a heritage stop as much as a place to drink. Food is part of the experience for many guests, eaten alongside the tea while the music plays, though the kitchen is not what people come for. Order the tea first, add food if the moment calls for it, and let the room do the rest.