A typical pavement tea shop in Hanoi

This “tea shop” opens from 5am to 6.30am and customers sit on plastic chairs to see the Turtle Tower and the Hoan Kiem Lake.

This “tea shop” has opened along the Dinh Tien Hoang street sidewalk for many years. Its customers are people who go to the Hoan Kiem Lake to do morning exercise.

It is special because the “tea shop” opens for only 90 minutes a day.

Customers serve themselves ice tea, hot tea and Artemisia tea. A glass of tea and Artemisia tea is priced only 2000 dong ($0.1).

Though the “tea shop” opens for 90 minutes, it serves a hundred of customers each day. “I can only sell tea for 90 minutes in the early morning, because police begin work at 6.30am,” explained the old woman who owns the shop.

The “tea shop” had more customers during the recent heat wave as many Hanoians woke early to get some fresh air at Hoan Kiem Lake.

Pham Hai