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Ready, set, go: It's time to start drinking more tea in China
April 19, 2010, Monday
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HANGZHOU, China's "capital of tea," is helping to promote tea drinking around the country where tea was born but where popular high-calorie drinks are making inroads. Xu Wenwen teases out the tale.
The China International Tea Culture Expo is underway in Hangzhou to celebrate the world's most popular drink - its taste, history, culture and health benefits.
Yesterday millions of people around China drank tea to honor their national drink on the National Tea-Drinking Day.
It's part of a campaign to promote tea drinking in the home of tea where soft drinks and other beverages are increasingly popular.
Drinkers included thousands in Hangzhou where the theme was "Tea and the Grand Canal."
Thousands of cups of tea, tea leaves, coupons, tea sets and gifts were given away at distribution points along the canal and nationwide.
Around the country, there were more than 700 "tea-presenting spots" in more than 30 cities, most of them along the Grand Canal of China. Hong Kong, Macau and cities in Taiwan also took part and sent representatives to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
"Tea enjoys the supreme position in China; it's not only a drink but an art and feast, like coffee in West," says Wang Xufeng, chief organizer of the event. He is head professor of the Tea Culture College of Zhejiang Forest University.
"China's tea, as a traditional national drink, could hardly prosper without the Grand Canal linking China's north and south," she says.
It is believed that yesterday millions of people drank tea along this 1,800-kilometer-long canal - so many that the organizer plans to apply for a Guinness World Record.
Hangzhou, as the end of the canal and "capital of tea," was the organizer of National Tea-Drinking Day, along with Beijing, where the canal starts.
The tea-drinking day was part of the "Everybody Drinks Tea Initiative" to get more people to drink tea.
"Low-carbon life begins from drinking tea" is the slogan.
At the tea-distribution spots around China, experts discussed tea and answered questions, tea ceremonies were performed and poems about tea were written and recited. Seminars were held to promote "tea and Grand Canal culture."
The tea-drinking day was originally scheduled for April 20, marking Guyu or Grain Rain, the sixth term in the Chinese lunar calendar. It's the height of the tea-picking season.
But the day was changed and moved to yesterday to make it possible for more people to take part on the weekend.
Hangzhou is famous for its Longjing (Dragon Well) tea.
Legend has it that tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shennong about 2700 BC when a leaf from a camellia sinensis tree fell into water that was being boiled for him.
At first tea was eaten as vegetables and used as medicine. In the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220) it developed into the infusion we know as tea and many types of tea were grown.
Tea is one of the traditional seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar.
"Many tea-appreciation artworks, such as poems, books and paintings, fill every period of Chinese history after the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)," says Wang.
The Grand Canal of China served as the main trade and transport artery between northern and southern China and was essential for the transport of tea since the Tang Dynasty.
The corridor along the canal developed into an important economic belt, and the tea industry expanded.
The canal also enabled political integration and cultural exchange, including tea culture - tea, which originated in southern China at first was rejected by northerners, but alter popularized.
"The Grand Canal was one of the carriers of tea culture and tea culture enriches the canal culture," explains Wang. "Therefore, cultural merging is an indispensable part of the application to UNESCO for World Cultural Heritage status of the Grand Canal."
The Tea Expo has selected the top 10 Chinese teas for World Expo 2010. Hangzhou's Dragon Well Tea was chosen to represent green tea, the most popular tea China and the drink served to visitors at the Expo's United Nations Pavilion.
The China International Tea Culture Expo is underway in Hangzhou to celebrate the world's most popular drink - its taste, history, culture and health benefits.
Yesterday millions of people around China drank tea to honor their national drink on the National Tea-Drinking Day.
It's part of a campaign to promote tea drinking in the home of tea where soft drinks and other beverages are increasingly popular.
Drinkers included thousands in Hangzhou where the theme was "Tea and the Grand Canal."
Thousands of cups of tea, tea leaves, coupons, tea sets and gifts were given away at distribution points along the canal and nationwide.
Around the country, there were more than 700 "tea-presenting spots" in more than 30 cities, most of them along the Grand Canal of China. Hong Kong, Macau and cities in Taiwan also took part and sent representatives to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
"Tea enjoys the supreme position in China; it's not only a drink but an art and feast, like coffee in West," says Wang Xufeng, chief organizer of the event. He is head professor of the Tea Culture College of Zhejiang Forest University.
"China's tea, as a traditional national drink, could hardly prosper without the Grand Canal linking China's north and south," she says.
It is believed that yesterday millions of people drank tea along this 1,800-kilometer-long canal - so many that the organizer plans to apply for a Guinness World Record.
Hangzhou, as the end of the canal and "capital of tea," was the organizer of National Tea-Drinking Day, along with Beijing, where the canal starts.
The tea-drinking day was part of the "Everybody Drinks Tea Initiative" to get more people to drink tea.
"Low-carbon life begins from drinking tea" is the slogan.
At the tea-distribution spots around China, experts discussed tea and answered questions, tea ceremonies were performed and poems about tea were written and recited. Seminars were held to promote "tea and Grand Canal culture."
The tea-drinking day was originally scheduled for April 20, marking Guyu or Grain Rain, the sixth term in the Chinese lunar calendar. It's the height of the tea-picking season.
But the day was changed and moved to yesterday to make it possible for more people to take part on the weekend.
Hangzhou is famous for its Longjing (Dragon Well) tea.
Legend has it that tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shennong about 2700 BC when a leaf from a camellia sinensis tree fell into water that was being boiled for him.
At first tea was eaten as vegetables and used as medicine. In the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220) it developed into the infusion we know as tea and many types of tea were grown.
Tea is one of the traditional seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar.
"Many tea-appreciation artworks, such as poems, books and paintings, fill every period of Chinese history after the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)," says Wang.
The Grand Canal of China served as the main trade and transport artery between northern and southern China and was essential for the transport of tea since the Tang Dynasty.
The corridor along the canal developed into an important economic belt, and the tea industry expanded.
The canal also enabled political integration and cultural exchange, including tea culture - tea, which originated in southern China at first was rejected by northerners, but alter popularized.
"The Grand Canal was one of the carriers of tea culture and tea culture enriches the canal culture," explains Wang. "Therefore, cultural merging is an indispensable part of the application to UNESCO for World Cultural Heritage status of the Grand Canal."
The Tea Expo has selected the top 10 Chinese teas for World Expo 2010. Hangzhou's Dragon Well Tea was chosen to represent green tea, the most popular tea China and the drink served to visitors at the Expo's United Nations Pavilion.
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