The heart of Huaiyang cuisine, one of China’s original ‘Four Great Cuisines’, is Yangzhou. One establishment so stands out in the city it is not uncommon to hear people say “If you have not visited Yechun, you have not been to Yangzhou”.
The teahouse traces its origins to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912). It is believed Yechun began as the private garden of the poet WANG Shi Zhen (1634 – 1711) in the Hongqiao area of Yangzhou.
Yechun rose to word-of-mouth fame as a gathering place for scholars and intellectuals to enjoy calligraphy, poetry and painting. Former leader JIANG Zemin, originally from Yangzhou, visited Yechun on numerous occasions and even left his calligraphy on the wall of a private room.
Yangzhou was also a favourite of Qianlong (1711 – 1799). The Manchu emperor visited the city six times in his southern expeditions. Travelling in a royal procession of barges, there were imperial stops along the 1,800 km Grand Canal (the longest man-made waterway in the world).
The foremost meal you must experience at Yechun is breakfast. It is so popular there are three sittings: 7, 8 and 9 am. Several of the breakfast snacks are baos or Chinese buns. Some are vegetarian, others of pork, some even filled with crab roe. To give an indication of the numbers Yechun attracts, each day, 10,000 to 20,000 baos are made. That’s just for a normal day. On festive occasions, the kitchen has to produce up to 50,000!
For the last 17 years, Chef NI Qiu Xiang has been tirelessly leading an army of kitchen staff to enthrall the millions who visit Yechun yearly for breakfast (the restaurant also serves lunch and dinner). Ni hails from an illustrious line of chefs and represents the fifth generation in her family devoted to Yangzhou cuisine.
8 Fengle Upper Street • Guangling
冶春茶社 • 广陵区丰乐上街8号（近西园饭店）
