Chinese Tea Culture

Tea Culture Tours
Tea, a name full of elegant fragrance and fames, long lived for nearly 5000 years and has been an integral part of Chinese culture. Our Chinese Tea Cultural Tour will take you to discover first hand the many facets of the way of tea. Guided by some of China's foremost tea authorities, you will explore remote mist-covered mountains where the legends of tea were born, visit ancient cities where emperors once ruled with teacup in hand, tour ornate temples, lavish palaces, and historic landmarks, experience the charm of China's many colorful traditions as well as visit several famous tea producing and cultural regions at the height of the season...

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12 nights/13 days Chinese Tea Cultural Tour
Shanghai/Yixing/Hangzhou/Fuzhou/Wuyishan/Beijing
6 nights/7 days Sichuan Tea Culture Tour

Chengdu/Mendingshan/Ya'an/Rongjing/Chengdu

Chinese Tea Culture

Tea-drinking is a constituent part of Chinese culture. China is an original producer of tea and its skills in planting and making tea. Its customs of tea-drinking spread over to Europe, and then, to many other regions through cultural exchange via the ancient "Silk Road" and other channels of trade. The Chinese nation has written a brilliant page for its tea culture in the history of world civilization. The development and promotion of tea has been one of China's principal contributions to the world.

Chinese tea has a history of over 5,000 years, during which a series of unique tea culture have come into being, covering from tea plant cultivation and conservation, tea-leaf picking to processing and sampling tea. Tea-leaves are mainly produced in the southern area to the Yangtze River for mild climate and fertile ground there, such as the provinces of Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guizhou and Fujian. There produce an abundance of renowned tea varieties, e.g. Longjin, Wulong, Pu’er, Tieguangyin.

Tea culture is one of the common traits shared by all the 56 ethnic groups in China. Many Chinese people believe that a day is not perfect without a cup of tea. Either in the warm southern mountain area or on the frozen northern grassland, stuff like Gongfu tea, buttered tea and milk tea are all among the favorite drinks. Furthermore, both ancient and modern Chinese people tend to indulge in elaborating on poems, essays, dances and dramas on the tea.

In the past dynasties, people not only formed a special way of tea-drinking, but also developed an art form called tea-drinking. This art form comprises of many aspects. The most noticeable ones are the making of tea, the way of brewing, the drinking utensils such as tea pot. The art of making tea is called "Cha dao", which was soon accepted as one of the most important cultures that Japan learned from China. 

History of Tea Categories of Chinese Tea Tea Production Tea-Producing Areas Famous Teas in China Tea drinking folks Tea ware in China

History of Tea
Accidental Discovery of Tea
In 2737 BC, legend has it that leaves from a tree dropped into Emperor Shen Nung's cup of boiling water. The servant had boiled the water for hygienic reasons before the emperor was to drink it. But this time the water was turned brown by the wayward leaves. Being a scientist, the emperor was curious and decided to try some of this new liquid. He found the liquid aromatic and refreshing. Since that serendipitous beginning, tea has been part of many cultures down through the years.

Tea moves to Japan via Buddhist Priests
2000 years after the beginnings of tea, Buddhist priests traveling between Japan and China introduced this drink to Japan. The priests brought tea seeds back to be cultivated in Japan. This was such a success that tea quickly became an integral part of Japanese life. The Japanese Tea Ceremony was soon perfected with the help of Ch'a Ching (The Tea Book, written by Chinese Scholar Lu Yu).

Tea Leaps to Europe through Trade
Tea reaches Europe during the 1600's, with credit being claimed by both the Portuguese and the Dutch. The Portuguese with their advance navy, created trade routes to China and brought back tea to Portugal. From Lisbon, a seaport of Portugal, the Dutch East India Company transported the tea to Holland, France and Germany. Soon the Dutch were trading directly with the Chinese. This beverage was initially popular among the wealthy, but soon become prevalent in Russia and England as their beverage of choice.

Tea in America
In the mid 1600's, the Dutch were actively involved in trade with the Western world. Peter Stuyvesant was the first to bring tea to the colonists of America. These settlers were heavy volume tea drinkers; they consumed more tea than all of England at that time. This fact led to one of America's most famous events, the Boston Tea Party. The British Government mistakenly thought that they could excessively raise the tax on the importing of tea because many Americans were hooked on this drink. Instead, the result was the Boston Tea Party, an event that led to the American Revolution.

The Categories of Chinese Tea
Chinese tea may be classified into five categories according to the different methods by which it is processed.

1) Green tea:
Green tea is the variety which keeps the original colour of the tea leaves without fermentation during processing. This category consists mainly of Longjing tea of Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.

2) Black tea:
Black tea, known as "red tea" (hong cha) in China, is the category which is fermented before baking; it is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea. The best brands of black tea are Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.

3) Oolong tea:
This represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas, being made after partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on China's southeast coast: Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.

4) Compressed tea:
This is the kind of tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good for transport and storage and is mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the border areas of the country. As compressed tea is black in colour in its commercial form, so it is also known in China as "black tea". Most of the compressed tea is in the form of bricks; it is, therefore, generally called "brick tea", though it is sometimes also in the form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

5) Scented tea:
This kind of tea is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of processing. The flowers commonly used for this purpose are jasmine and magnolia among others. Jasmine tea is a well-known favorite with the northerners of China and with a growing number of foreigners.

Tea Production
A new tea-plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The trunk of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this way, a plant may serve for about l00 years.

For the fertilization of tea gardens, Soya-bean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used, and seldom chemical fertilizers. When pests are discovered, the affected plants will be removed to prevent their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.

The season of tea-picking depends on local climate and varies from area to area. On the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the famous green tea Longjing (Dragon Well) comes from, picking starts from the end of March and lasts through October, altogether 20-30 times from the same plants at intervals of seven to ten days. With a longer interval, the quality of the tea will deteriorate.

A skilled woman picker can only gather 600 grams (a little over a pound) of green tea leaves in a day.

The new leaves must be parched in tea cauldrons. This work , which used to be done manually, has been largely mechanized. Top-grade Dragon Well tea, however, still has to be stir-parched by hand, doing only 250 grams every half hour. The tea-cauldrons are heated electrically to a temperature of about 25oC or 74oF. It takes four pounds of fresh leaves to produce one pound of parched tea.

The best Dragon Well tea is gathered several days before Qingming (Pure Brightness, 5th solar term) when new twigs have just begun to grow and carry "one leaf and a bud." To make one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of finished tea, 60, 000 tender leaves have to be plucked. In the old days Dragon Well tea of this grade was meant solely for the imperial household; it was, therefore, known as "tribute tea".

For the processes of grinding, parching, rolling, shaping and drying other grades of tea various machines have been developed and built, turning out about 100 kilograms of finished tea an hour and relieving the workers from much of their drudgery.

China's Tea-Producing Areas
Tea is produced in vast areas of China from Hainan Island down in the extreme south to Shandong Province in the north, from Tibet in the southwest to Taiwan across the Straits, totaling more than 20 provinces. These may be divided into four major areas:

1) The Jiangnan area:
It lies south of the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, and is the most prolific of China's tea-growing areas. Most of its output is the green variety; some black tea is also produced.

2) The Jiangbei area:
This refers to a large area north of the same river, where the average temperature is 2-3 Centigrade degrees lower than in the Jiangnan area. Green tea is the principal variety turned out there, but Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, which are also parts of this area. produce compressed tea for supply to the minority areas in the Northwest.

3) The Southwest area:
This embraces Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet, producing black, green as well as compressed teas. Pu'er tea of Yunnan Province enjoys a good sale in China and abroad.

4) The Lingnan area:
This area, consisting of the southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and taiwan, produces Wulong tea, which is renowned both at home and abroad.

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Tea Culture TripsHistory of TeaCategories of Chinese TeaTea ProductionTea-Producing AreasFamous Teas in ChinaTea drinking folksTea ware in ChinaHow to Book

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