This labyrinthine location is a completely wooden world. Returning from the toilet, guests often have to ask their way back. The winding silkworm passages lead to a teahouse where lotus flowers adorn the entrance.
Push open it wooden door and take the wooden stairs to the basement. Wooden lamps light the passage.
The teahouse has four independent-functioning openrooms. In each corner, there are sculptures and oddities, each bizarre artistic handicrafts - a table made from wheelbarrow, an engraved lamp; liquor bottles set in holes that have been cut into a standing round wooden sculpture.
"With my work, the wood doesn't need to be designed, but the design depends on the wood," says Chen Zhengbin, manager and designer of the Mu Dang Zhen Teahouse.
Chen suggests guests sip tea in his workshop and eat dinner in the sculpture house.
"As each piece of wood has its own personal character, relatively speaking, each of my works has its own soul."
Chen says his teahouse is the first of its kind in Beijng.
"It is dedicated to exhibiting my work while guests enjoy their space. In a modern city, primitive handicrafts look a little odd. "
Most of the wood comes from a 50-year-old pear tree he got from a village. The 300-square-meter house has 50 seats.
(Beijing Today August 23, 2002)
