Bound by tea, we gather in the heart of Beijing; with sincerity, we meet as friends to savor teas from around the world. The 2024 Beijing International Tea Exhibition coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival and the “Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.” This grand Tea culture event, highlighted by folk customs, national trends, and craftsmanship, showcases new business models, scenes, applications, and perspectives in China's tea industry. The highlights are captivating, and the attractions are enchanting…

At the Huangshan Famous Tea (Beijing) Promotion Event, a long-spouted teapot performance captivates visitors. Photo by He Juan, this journal.

Tea for All

Cultural Activities Abound

The Chinese nation has a long history of tea cultivation, with diverse tea-making techniques and varied tea-drinking customs. “Traditional Chinese Tea Processing Techniques and Related Customs” is listed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, significantly contributing to the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture. During the 2024 Beijing International Tea Exhibition, quyi culture, seasonal culture, merchant guild culture, ceramic culture, Chinese health culture, Dragon Boat Festival folk culture, and artificial intelligence technology blend harmoniously with tea culture, presenting a prosperous scene of tea for all and diverse customs.

This year's exhibition brings together representatives from tea-producing regions and industry organizations across the country, including Huangshan, Hangzhou, Dali, Yichang, Wuzhou, Hengzhou, Fuding, and Sanjiang, among others. Multiple locations host a series of activities for the “Cultural and Natural Heritage Day,” creating a festive atmosphere with distinct local cultures and folk styles. Behind each leaf lies a story that spans wide regions, long traditions, and rich cultural content.

Skills passed down through generations enrich countless households. At Lao She Teahouse, a non-genetic inheritor of long-spouted teapot art performs for the Huangshan Famous Tea (Beijing) Promotion Event, skillfully executing acts like “Playing Pipa Backwards,” “Holding the Moon in Embrace,” and “Spreading Wings.” Amidst the soothing ancient music and fragrant tea, representatives such as Wang Xiulan, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project for flower tea making techniques, and Sun Danwei, the inheritor of Jasmine tea making techniques, witness the unveiling ceremony for the collective trademark “She Tea” from Huangshan, Anhui. They discuss historical legacies, share craft techniques, and contribute industry wisdom.

High in the mountains at the 30th parallel north, amidst the clouds and mists, great tea grows in Huangshan, Anhui, which is a dual World Cultural and Natural Heritage site and the birthplace of renowned teas like Qimen Black Tea, Huangshan Maofeng, and Taiping Monkey King. “Of all the beautiful landscapes on earth, only Huangshan surpasses even the most splendid.” Walking into the Huangshan Pavilion at the Beijing Exhibition Hall, one finds brand logos, packaging, landscape displays, and exhibition designs that exude the charm of Huizhou. Many of these creations draw inspiration from Huizhou's natural scenery, Huizhou-style architecture, and the Xin'an School of Painting, making them truly unforgettable. In recent years, 18 tea-related projects in Huangshan have been listed in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage. Over 200 projects, integrating tea culture, tourism, education, and study, have been developed. Some tea culture and tea craft scenes are vividly recreated at the exhibition, and tea farmers are present to attract many visitors.

In Xuan Nan Theater, the “Same Roots, Same Origin: Fragrant Tea for the Dragon Boat Festival” event, jointly organized by the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots and the Maliandao International Tea Culture Exhibition Organizing Committee, kicks off. Over a hundred young Taiwanese students gather to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, savoring fine teas, enjoying Peking Opera, listening to storytelling, and watching magic shows. A performance of “The Drunken Concubine” receives enthusiastic applause. “This scenery is so captivating that I find myself in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion…” Zheng Tingyi, from Tainan, Taiwan, calls himself an experienced enthusiast and sings along throughout the performance. Afterward, he buys tea gift boxes to send backstage as a sign of respect. “I love opera and tea, so naturally, I must give tea to the stars! That's our Chinese tradition!” Additionally, storytelling performances like “Wen Ji Zhan Hua Xiong,” magic shows like “Three Immortals Returning to the Cave,” and crosstalk like “Guessing Lantern Riddles” create numerous climaxes.

“Besides honoring Qu Yuan, what other stories are associated with the Dragon Boat Festival?” “Can anyone name the specific types of China's six major tea categories?” “Where is the ‘Porcelain Capital of China' located?”… The organizers have thoughtfully designed knowledge quizzes about historical stories and traditional culture, as well as interactive sessions to make herbal sachets for Dragon Boat Festival health preservation. Amidst sewing and threading, overseas students who have crossed the strait to study on the mainland share their homesickness, recording videos to convey greetings and thoughts to their families.

Preserving Tradition, Embracing Innovation

Experts Gather at Tea Talks and Forums

Eco-friendly tea, preserving tradition while embracing innovation. During the 2024 Beijing International Tea Exhibition, various events such as the Dabie Mountain Revolutionary Old Area Yellow Tea Industry Development Seminar, the Yimingju Scientific Tea Storage Tasting Session, and the “Quanzhou Tea Fragrance Spreads Across the Capital” Oolong Tea Tasting Session take place. Apart from representatives from time-honored tea merchants and traditional tea enterprises, newer tea brands like Heytea and Xiao Guan Tea also make appearances. Scholars and experts join tea talks and forums, discussing how to promote the modernization and sustainable development of China's tea industry through integration and innovation, accelerating the cultivation of new productive forces in the tea sector, and focusing on tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology to craft fine tea stories.

Adapting to local conditions and cultivating a new model of tea-tourism integration, driving the realization of heritage appreciation and ecological benefits, is a hot topic at this year's exhibition. At the release event for new tea-tourism routes in 2024, scenic tea villages nestled in mountains, ancient tea mountains with a rustic charm, and modern ecological tea gardens flow by. The natural landscapes of tea-producing areas and their unique cultural features intertwine, represented by six major routes: the Fujian Anxi line, the Zhejiang Anji line, the Yunnan Lancang line, the Guangxi Zhaoping line, the Anhui Qimen line, and the Hunan Anhua line. These routes connect to form a grand blueprint for Chinese tea tourism, spanning the north and south, linking the east and west. Through the Yunnan Lancang line, visitors can not only appreciate the ethnic customs of the Bulang and Dai people but also experience the world's first tea-themed world cultural heritage site, the “Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape of Pu'er Jingmai Mountain.”

Dali is an important hub on the ancient Tea Horse Road, one of the earliest regions in Yunnan to cultivate, process, and drink tea. In 1973, Yunnan Province gained the self-operated export rights for specialty tea products (Pu'er tea), propelling the fragrance of the Tea Horse Road overseas to Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. Chu Jiuyun, chairman of Xiaguan Tuocha (Group) Co., Ltd., recounts the historical background of the century-old brand, introduces the era of industrial transformation and modern processing systems for established tea enterprises, and shares the “business secrets” of exporting national tea and telling Chinese stories. He concludes that science and technology are the primary driving force, while cultural inheritance and historical depth are essential supports.

There are divine delights in the human realm, and tea is the gem among herbs. Labels like “sugar-free” and “zero-calorie” mark the start of a new era of scientific understanding of tea's health benefits. Moderate tea drinking and timely health preservation are increasingly favored by younger generations. Academician Liu Zhonghua of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Hunan Normal University, has long been engaged in research on tea processing and efficient utilization of resources. He actively promotes industry-academia-research cooperation and is dedicated to using science to decode the ecological genes of tea, extract beneficial components from tea, and unlock the health secrets of tea drinking. He believes that using science to continuously improve quality and safety, and using culture to enhance the soul of a brand, will strengthen tea brands and develop national tea products with market competitiveness, crafting a comprehensive narrative on tea culture, industry, and technology.

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