“Chinese tea cheers for the World Expo”

It is mid April, spring tea has been harvested and brought to the city. This is the time, when Shanghai holds its International Tea Culture Festival (上海国际茶文化节). The topic of this year’s edition is “Chinese tea cheers for the World Expo” (“中国茶喝彩世博”). Indeed, the World Expo Shanghai 2010 (2010年上海世界博览会), that will be opening in two weeks is dedicated to the theme: “Better city, Better life” (“城市让生活更美好”), which is not unrelated to tea.

As a matter of fact, a city’s tea culture can do a lot to make life more agreeable. Places like Songyuan Tea Art House (宋园茶艺馆), one of Shanghai’s oldest and most renowned tea houses, and the place of birth of the festival in 1994, offer moments of calm and serenity that are necessary to the life in a big city.

In accordance with its tradition, the festival’s closing ceremony will be staged outside of Shanghai in a tea producing region. Following last year’s Lu’an (六安) city in Anhui (安徽) province, this year the festival will pay a visit to the city of Dujiangyan (都江堰) in Sichuan (四川) province. This region was badly hit by the 2008 earthquake and the festival wants to contribute to its  recovery. It is thus playing its role as a link between the city and the tea producing provinces and as a mean for popularizing tea varieties.

The festival will last from April 15. to April 19. with a whole range of activities like talks, exhibitions, tea tasting, etc. Most events will take place at Shanghai’s Agricultural Exhibition Center (上海国际农展中心).

Chinese sources: 上海国际茶文化节4月开幕 牵手都江堰为世博喝彩; 上海国际茶文化节开幕