Two pages here point at Cantonese morning tea and then walk away. The Guangzhou guide names the grand houses and what to order and says, in full, that morning tea is the institution and to go between seven and eleven. The tea guide notes that in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, tea is the frame for dim sum, and moves on to the next city.
Both are correct. Neither prepares you for the table.
It is a morning, not a dish#
早茶 (zǎochá, morning tea) is not a category of food. It is a way of spending the first part of a day, and the food is the accompaniment to it.
The order of the words matters: yum cha is Cantonese for drinking tea. Tea comes first and is chosen first; the small dishes arrive around it. Groups sit for two or three hours. Newspapers get read. Three generations turn up together, and the noise level is considerable. Nobody is in a hurry, and the table is not being turned.
That is the single most useful thing to know, because the Western instinct is to treat dim sum as a lunch that happens to be small. Arriving at half past nine expecting a quick plate, and finding a full room of people who have been there since eight and intend to stay until eleven, is the standard first experience.
The street breakfast tradition that dominates the rest of China is the opposite of this: eaten standing, in five minutes, on the way to work. Guangzhou has that too. Morning tea is the other thing.
The charge nobody ordered#
Here is what actually catches people out, and it is the only part of the meal with rules attached.
A Cantonese restaurant will normally add a 茶位费 (chá wèi fèi, tea-seat charge) — a per-person charge covering the tea, and often the pickles, the wet towel and the crockery. You did not order it and it is not a service charge. It is the cost of the seat and the pot.
It is also lawful, provided it is displayed. Not displaying it is where the problem lies, and the position is set by the general price rules rather than by anything specific to catering.
Minimum charges are prohibited, and the rule moved in 2025#
The other charge worth knowing about is the one that is not allowed at all — and the instrument behind it was replaced last year, which is why most published advice cites the wrong article.
The 餐饮业促进和经营管理办法 (cānyǐn yè cùjìn hé jīngyíng guǎnlǐ bànfǎ, Measures for the Promotion and Administration of the Catering Industry) were issued jointly by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission as Order No. 3 of 2025, promulgated on 12 May 2025 and in force since 15 June 2025. They expressly repeal the 2014 trial measures that preceded them.
Article 16 is one sentence:
禁止餐饮服务经营者设置最低消费。
Caterers are prohibited from setting a minimum charge. The rule itself is not new — it carried over from Article 12 of the repealed 2014 measures — but the article number changed, and anything citing Article 12 is now citing a repealed text.
This matters most in the private rooms that Cantonese restaurants are full of. A minimum spend attached to a room is the practice the article addresses.
What the new measures do not do, having looked: they say nothing about tea-seat charges. There is no article requiring a caterer to display one, and none prohibiting it. That gap is why the answer sits with the marked-price rules and with municipal reminders like Guangzhou's rather than in the catering measures themselves.
One provision that helps two people order#
Article 13 of the same measures is aimed at food waste and turns out to be useful at a dim sum table.
Caterers are to make small portions and multiple sizes reasonably available across staples, dishes and drinks, and may enrich the menu by marking the main ingredients, the portion size, the flavour and the suggested number of diners.
Two people facing a menu of forty steamer baskets are exactly the case that provision imagines. Where a menu carries a suggested headcount, use it; ordering four dishes and adding more is the local method anyway.
In practice#
- Go between seven and eleven, which the Guangzhou guide already tells you and is worth repeating because the kitchen genuinely stops.
- Expect a per-person tea charge, and look for it on the board or the menu before you sit.
- Order in rounds. Two or three dishes at a time, then more. The steamer baskets stack up and there is no service in bringing everything at once.
- The tea is a choice. You will be asked which one; it is a real question, and the six categories are the answer to it.
- Tap two fingers when someone pours for you. The wordless thank-you, and the one piece of table etiquette that transfers everywhere in the south.
- A minimum spend on a private room is prohibited. So is a charge that was never displayed.
- Hong Kong runs its own consumer and pricing law, so the mainland rules above describe Guangzhou and the rest of Guangdong, not the yum cha you will eat across the border.
Frequently asked questions#
What is yum cha?#
Cantonese for "drinking tea" — a morning of tea with small dishes served alongside, lasting two or three hours rather than the length of a meal. The tea is chosen first and the dim sum accompanies it, which is the reverse of how visitors usually understand the phrase.
What time is yum cha in Guangzhou?#
Roughly 07:00 to 11:00. It is genuinely a morning institution rather than an all-day option, and the kitchens stop, so arriving at midday for dim sum means a different meal in a different restaurant.
What is the tea charge in a Chinese restaurant?#
A per-person charge covering the tea and often the pickles, wet towel and crockery. It is lawful where it is displayed. Guangzhou's market regulator told caterers in January 2025 that a tea-seat charge must be clearly marked in a conspicuous position and that the menu, price labels and ordering app must show the same prices.
Can a Chinese restaurant set a minimum charge?#
No. Article 16 of the Measures for the Promotion and Administration of the Catering Industry, in force since 15 June 2025, prohibits caterers from setting a minimum charge. The rule carried over from the repealed 2014 measures, where it was Article 12.
Do I have to pay a tea charge I was not told about?#
The catering measures do not address tea charges at all. The general position is that a business may not collect a fee it did not mark, so a charge appearing only at settlement is the situation those rules govern — and rounding a bill up rather than down is separately named as a pricing offence.
Is yum cha only in Guangzhou and Hong Kong?#
It is Cantonese in origin and strongest across Guangdong and Hong Kong, though large Cantonese restaurants in other Chinese cities run a version of it. Elsewhere in China the morning meal is the street breakfast tradition instead, which is a completely different format.