In the scorching summer, travelers are always on the move. Those commuting between cities may not have time to stroll through old streets or seek out hidden shops, missing the unique flavors of each destination. To make up for this small regret, why not try a cup of local tea? The unique terroir of a region nurtures its tea fragrance, and the essence of a city is often captured in its local tea. The distinct taste derived from a rich tea base serves as the most vivid taste emblem of a city.
As the "first window" for a city to showcase itself to the outside world, the airport carries a traveler's first and last impression. A cup of local tea perfectly fits this memory node. Travelers don't need to specially search for it; with just a brief pause, they can encounter a city's unique summer coolness and cultural warmth during their comfortable and quiet waiting time. From Beijing's almond tofu milk tea to Wuhan's Hubei tea and Kunming's Dianhong Pu'er, travelers no longer just pass the time waiting for their flight. They want to explore, take photos, and create a sense of ritual to share on social media.
Beijing Daxing International Airport [Lao She Teahouse]
Tag: China Time-honored Brand, Airport Exclusive
Searching for "Must-eat at Daxing Airport" on Xiaohongshu, the top result is always the almond tofu milk tea. Priced at 26 yuan, it comes in a cup with the Lao She Teahouse logo, topped with a layer of salty cheese foam and sprinkled with osmanthus bits, with smooth almond tofu at the bottom. This drink, blending traditional Beijing snack with new-style milk tea, has become a must-try for many travelers before catching their flight. Its popularity grew organically: it started with a few travelers sharing on Xiaohongshu and Douyin about "a hidden taste of old Beijing at Daxing Airport," and then spread, eventually becoming part of the "Daxing Airport food trilogy" alongside Mei Zhen Xiang cheese-filled toast and Yang Yang Chinese Restaurant's shrimp shumai.
In Beijing, Lao She Teahouse has only two locations. One is at Qianmen on the Second Ring Road, a classic spot for tourists to experience old Beijing tea culture. The other is on the fifth floor of the Daxing Airport terminal, where travelers can easily experience the charm of old Beijing before leaving. This store, dubbed the "air courtyard" by travelers, features traditional Chinese decoration with grey tiles and walls, offering a view of planes taking off and landing on the tarmac through the glass windows. The slow pace of old Beijing and the fast pace of the airport coexist uniquely here.
Traditionally, Lao She Teahouse is known for opera, tea, and Beijing-style snacks, seemingly incompatible with the fast-paced modern transport hub of an airport. However, the Daxing Airport store has found a balance: preserving the essence of old Beijing while expressing it in a form that appeals to young people. Imagine turning traditional Beijing snacks like almond tofu and lvdagun into milk tea. At Daxing Airport, tradition and modernity, the local and the hub, are fused in a single cup of tea. Lao She Teahouse's entry into Daxing Airport is not just a product innovation; it's a continuation of old Beijing tea culture in a modern transport hub, a revitalization of a time-honored brand as an everyday commodity, a drink you can hold in your hand and enjoy daily.
●Must-order: Almond Tofu Milk Tea. Almond tofu is a traditional Beijing dessert, delicate and smooth with an almond fragrance. Lao She Teahouse cuts it into small pieces and places it in a milk tea base, topped with a layer of salty cheese foam and osmanthus bits. One sip offers both the richness of milk tea and the refreshing sweetness of a Beijing-style snack. "Three-tenths sugar, less ice" has become a code among regulars.
●Location: East area of the dining zone on the fifth floor of the terminal.
News: The Daxing Airport Summer Art Festival is making a grand return. From July 10 to August 28, every Friday, travelers can witness a different journey within the terminal. From the dynamic movements of ballroom dance to the charm of ethnic dance, from the shadow puppet theater's light and shadow adventures to the flowing elegance of Hanfu, from the resonant strings of folk music to the vast expanse of prairie songs, different sounds, dances, and stories converge, flow, and unfold in the same space. Here, departure is not just about heading to a distant place; arrival is also a beautiful encounter.
Kunming Changshui International Airport [Shang Shan He Cha]
Tag: A Cup Concentrated Yunnan Highland Tea
Entering the central commercial area after security at Kunming Changshui Airport's T1 terminal, you'll find the bustling Shang Shan He Cha store. This brand positions itself as making "a cup of concentrated Yunnan highland tea." All ingredients are sourced directly from various highland tea gardens in Yunnan, forgoing industrial standardized tea bags. It uses only local whole-leaf fresh extracts like Dianhong, ancient tree Pu'er, Gaoligong Oolong, and Yulan white tea, breaking away from the homogenized formulas of national chain milk tea shops. It is a light tea beverage specially designed for airport travelers, fitting their travel scenarios.
The store accommodates both dine-in and takeaway, with cup designs featuring the Spring City and the tea horse road's landscape patterns, naturally encouraging social media sharing. Orders come with complimentary Yunnan tea-themed postcards and special cultural creative stickers, which are very popular with travelers. Unlike city-center tea shops, the Kunming Changshui Airport store adds a retail area for Yunnan tea souvenirs, offering cold-brew tea bags of six major tea types, instant tea powder, Yunnan tea toffee, and other lightweight specialties. Travelers can easily pick up portable tea gifts while waiting for their flight, without needing to visit a specialty market.
The store's tea makers undergo systematic Yunnan tea culture training and can provide bilingual explanations of the differences between teas like Pu'er and Dianhong. Adjacent to the Tea Horse Road cultural exhibition area, travelers can enjoy a one-stop cultural tourism experience: "viewing the tea culture exhibition, tasting highland fresh milk tea, and taking home Yunnan tea souvenirs." This form of cultural dissemination, which is "consumable, experiential, and portable," is far more effective than museum-style displays. Kunming Changshui Airport has effectively moved the entire tea and coffee industry chain into the terminal, actively reinforcing its identity as the "World Tea Source."
●Must-order: Dianhong Latte. Made with a fresh extract of highland Dianhong from Fengqing, Yunnan, it has a natural caramel honey aroma, blended with pure milk for a frothy, light texture. The tea flavor is prominent without being overly sweet. It's suitable for quenching thirst before a flight or sipping slowly during a long wait. Almost every visitor to the store will order it.
●Location: Central commercial area after security at T1 terminal. A branch is also open at the S1 satellite hall.
News: Shang Shan He Cha regularly collaborates with the terminal's Tea Horse Road cultural exhibition area for joint tasting events. In the recent summer travel season upgrade, travelers spending a certain amount at the store can receive a free tasting voucher for the tea culture exhibition area, allowing them to closely view thousand-year-old ancient tea tree fossils and Qing Dynasty tea utensils from the Tea Horse Road, gaining an intuitive feel for Yunnan's millennia-old tea planting and making history.
Wuhan Tianhe International Airport [Airportea]
Tag: Brew a Cup of Hubei Tea for the World
"Brew a cup of Hubei tea for the world" – this slogan is highly visible at Wuhan Tianhe Airport's T3 terminal. This is the first self-created tea beverage brand in any Chinese airport: "Airportea," whose name literally translates to "airport tea." It is the first time in China's civil aviation history that an airport has created its own tea brand. Hubei is the hometown of Shennong, the "Tea Ancestor," and Lu Yu, the "Tea Sage," and is one of the few provinces in China that produces all six major tea types, with a deep tea culture.
Airportea uses Hubei's famous teas, employing local high-quality original leaves such as Enshi Yulu, Chibi Qing Brick Tea, and Yingshan Yunwu Tea, across six varieties of hot-brewed tea. These include Enshi Yulu, known for its "three greens" due to thousand-year-old steaming techniques; Xingshan White Tea, hailed as a "gem among teas"; Yuan'an Yellow Tea, once a tribute item; Xianfeng Oolong, comparable to Fujian Oolong; Lichuan Black Tea, known for its floral and honey notes; and Chibi Qing Brick Tea, whose production technique is listed as a national and UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. Travelers who don't have time to explore Wuhan's old street tea houses can experience authentic Jingchu tea flavors and local characteristics without extra effort, right during their layover.
Its flagship products also tap into the emotional DNA of young people. For example, the Cloud Top Light Milk Tea and Cloud Top Light Milk Flower Tea use local tea as the base for a rich, lingering aroma, mixed with 100% pure milk or pistachio paste cream, resembling the clouds seen from an airplane window. Each milk tea's cloud top is adorned with different toppings like seaweed flakes, crushed pistachios, or dried strawberry bits, creating a layered, rich flavor profile that explodes on the palate. Since opening, essentially a cup of Airportea is served to a traveler every two minutes.
Airportea is more than just a cup of tea. "Before leaving Wuhan, I want to carry the fragrance of Hubei tea in my heart!" wrote one traveler on social media. Airportea prints Hubei tea cultural symbols directly on the cups and incorporates them into the menu, so each drink serves as an educational experience about Jingchu tea culture. Airportea is not only positioned at Wuhan Tianhe Airport but also plans to expand to other markets, gradually developing tea snacks, tea gifts, and tea ware, spreading the cultural brand of Jingchu globally and letting the "fine teas of Hubei" be known far and wide.
●Must-order: Cloud Top Light Milk Tea. The rich, lingering tea base is made from Hubei-produced tea, whose thousand-year-old steaming technique allows the tea and milk flavors to perfectly integrate. The light cream top is fluffy, airy, and light as a cloud, differing from thick cheese foam, and is refreshing without being cloying. The crunchy fruit bits on top add layers of texture.
●Location: Two stores, one in the East commercial zone and one in the West commercial zone of the T3 terminal.
News: Recently, the "Fine Teas of Hubei" store officially opened at Tianhe Airport. As the provincial public brand for Hubei's tea industry, its store design is rich in Hubei tea culture, incorporating elements from the legend of Shennong tasting herbs and Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" to the glorious history of the "Ten Thousand Mile Tea Road." These cultural elements seamlessly blend a thousand years of tea heritage with modern airport aesthetics, allowing travelers to immerse themselves in the profound depth of Hubei tea culture during their journey. It truly serves as an "airborne living room" for Hubei tea culture and a "frontline showcase window" for the brand's image.
Changsha Huanghua International Airport [Sexy Tea]
Tag: Hunan's National-Style City Card Tea Beverage
Sexy Tea is native to Changsha and is a very representative new-style Chinese tea beverage brand. In recent years, it has become incredibly popular based on a single cup of milk tea, capturing the hearts of millions of young people, becoming a new synonym for "old Changsha" and a popular internet-famous check-in spot for tourists.
At Changsha Huanghua Airport, Sexy Tea is a true "top trend," with a dense distribution covering both inside and outside security checkpoints. Whether departing, picking someone up, or transferring, travelers can easily buy a cup of their nostalgic Youlan Latte in the nearby terminal area, enjoying the pleasant time waiting for their flight. In the T2 terminal, there is a massive 760-square-meter Sexy Tea family store, which brings together four brands: Sexy Tea, Yuan Yang Coffee, Good Mok Lin, and Small God Leisurely Teahouse, serving three functions: tea drinking, creative product selection, and souvenir shopping. The store is designed in a new Chinese courtyard style. Traditional ink-wash walls, classical ladies' brand logos, logs tables and chairs, and large glass windows merge to create a peaceful Chinese tea house amidst the bustle. This collection store is located on the basement floor of the T2 terminal. Travelers can wait here before departure, greeters can wait after parking, and arriving passengers can enjoy a local tea drink as soon as they land, experiencing the "Hunan" style hospitality of Changsha.
Most notably, all products in this store are priced the same as in the city, with no premium. Membership cards are valid city-wide, and purchases can be stamped with a special airport-limited travel stamp, making it a popular collectible for many tourists. The promise of "no price increase at the airport, universal membership" has broken the stereotype of "airport items being expensive" and has instead become a selling point. Many travelers specifically arrive at the airport early just to drink a cup of Sexy Tea before boarding.
●Must-order: Youlan Latte. Sexy Tea's breakout masterpiece. The black tea base is mellow and soft, topped with fluffy animal cream and crunchy pecan bits. The tea flavor is prioritized, with milk as a complement, and the sweetness is mild without being cloying. First-time visitors should order standard sugar, no ice, and stir the cream into the tea base for a better flavor. It suits all seasons, whether hot or cold, and is the most ordered item by airport travelers.
●Location: Besides the large collection store on the basement floor, multiple Sexy Tea stores are scattered throughout the T1 and T2 terminals, covering all areas inside and outside security checkpoints.
News: A symphony playing in the terminal, a Tujia dance performing at the boarding gate... This isn't a scene from a cultural market but a daily occurrence at Changsha Huanghua Airport. Since June 2025, the Huanghua Airport terminal has hosted over 20 regional cultural performances. The "Weekly Regional Culture Showcase" second season, launched this summer, has been fully upgraded. Besides themed performances of intangible cultural heritage, folk songs and dances, and local operas, a new segment called "Regional Goods on the Plane" has been added, featuring temporary markets and live-streamed sales. Travelers can buy local specialties and handicrafts right after watching the show.