Zhang Yiyuan

Zhang Yiyuan opened its first shop in 1900, in the 26th year of the Guangxu reign, when founder Zhang Changyi — a native of Dingtan Village in Anhui's She County — set up a stall named Zhang Yuyuan at Beijing's Flower Market. He renamed it Yiyuan, borrowing the phrase from an auspicious line in the I Ching about fresh beginnings, and opened ten more shops across the following decade, building a reputation in Beijing on honest dealing and consistent quality.

In 1908 Zhang opened the flagship Zhang Yiyuan tea house at Qianmen Dashilan, one of Beijing's most prominent commercial streets, cementing the brand's position in the capital's tea trade. The house's signature has always been jasmine tea, scented using a technique now listed as part of China's national intangible cultural heritage — a designation that credits Zhang Yiyuan's method specifically, not jasmine tea in general.

Recognized today as a China Time-honored Brand and marketed as one of China's leading tea brands, Zhang Yiyuan has expanded well past its original Beijing storefronts into production bases in multiple provinces. It remains best known, more than 125 years on, for the same jasmine-scented tea that built its name at the Flower Market.