Flagstaff House,Museum of Tea Ware

Tea to China is the cultural equivalent of coffee to the United States.

The Flagstaff House is located in Hong Kong Park, in Central, Hong Kong. It is the oldest colonial-style building-the best place to go if you want to see typical Hong Kong architecture of 150 years ago, remaining in the Special Administrative Region. The Flagstaff House was completed in 1846 and initially served as the military headquarters office and residence of the Commander of the British forces in Hong Kong. It was occupied by Japanese troops during World War II, and was thereafter again the Commander's residence.

In 1984, the Flagstaff House was converted into the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, a branch museum of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, with a new wing, The K.S. Lo Gallery, added in 1995. Alongside its exhibitions, the Museum holds regular demonstration, tea gathering and lecture programmes to promote ceramic art and Chinese tea drinking culture. Its collection includes about 500 pieces of tea ware ranging from earthenware to porcelain, primarily of Chinese origin, including many examples of the Yixing teapot, from China's Jiangsu Province, dating from the 7th century to the present day. With explanations in both English and Chinese, the exhibits also describe methods of making the various kinds of tea favored by the major dynasties.

The Flagstaff House Museum of Tea aims to exhibit one of Hong Kong's surviving examples of colonial architecture, as well as the history of tea in China. It does a better job of the latter, as the museum's interiors do not contain furnishings or decorations of the period that the house was first occupied in.