What to play in Shanghai- Tea houses and Qi Pai Shi

We like to spend our time in a tea house, but this kind of tea houses are not the same as the tradition ones.

There is a tea house chain in Shanghai called Bi Feng Tang and they offer almost all kinds of beverages except real tea. You can have ice-cream, soda, bubble tea and a lot of drinks in this tea house and you don’t need to worry how much you have drink because it is a kind of “drink buffet”. If you go into a Bi Feng Tang, you only need to pay about 15-30 RMB and then you can sit in the tea house and drink whatever you like for however long you like. The tea house also hasa lot of snacks like nuts and melon seeds for free. You can do much more than chatting in a tea house.You can play cards, chess and a lot of games. The tea house can offer you cards, chess, I-go, Chinese checkers, game paddle, etc. Usually my friends and I spend a whole afternoon in a Bi Feng Tang near our high school, eating ice-cream and playing cards.

Another kind of place to play cards in is called “Qi Pai Shi”. If translated into English, it means a room for playing cards and mahjong. In some places, the “Qi Pai Shi” owners just have an extremely big room and put a lot of square tables in it for people to play. When you come in, tell the front desk clerk which table you will sit and then just sit there playing cards of mahjong with others. When you go out, the clerk will tell you how much you need to pay according to the time you have been in it. However, in most cases, the owner will divide the place into small rooms and equip each room with a mahjong table or a normal square table for cards. Since people usually come with friends, you only need to tell the clerk you want to play mahjong or cards and a waiter/waitress will appear to show you the way to your room. You play in your own room without the disturbance of others and pay when you get out of the Qi Pai Shi. The pay is also calculated by the time. It is very similar to KTV.