Chinese Tea Culture

Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea and equipment used to make tea. Many tourists like to visit the local teahouses if they have a China tour.
Chinese people have the habit of drinking tea daily. With a long history and a profundity for its variety, Chinese tea culture is in large measure different from that of Europe, America and Japan. Chinese tea culture not only pay attention to material comforts but also the spirit pleasure. Chinese tea culture has deeply penetrated into many fields such as poems, painting, calligraphy, religion and Chinese traditional medicine.
China, the hometown of tea, is the first country which discovered, cultivated and drank tea in the world. China has tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants date back to two thousand years. Chinese tea became world-famous about one thousand years ago. According to historical documents, tea initially referred to edible bitter plants during primitive time. The name of tea especially had been referred to a kind of plant since discovery of some other values of tea.
When did Chinese people begin to drink tea? As for this question, there are many different versions. The matter of drinking tea was recorded in Western Han Dynasty. But the beginning of drinking tea should be earlier and the Chinese tea culture started in 420AD.

The Chinese tea can be classified into five types according to different methods which they are processed, which includes green tea, black tea, Wulong tea, scented tea and yellow tea. Green tea keeps the original color of the tea leaves without fermentation. Green tea contains kinds of biochemical materials which is good for health. It helps to refresh, improve digestion and dissolve phlegm. Compared with green tea, black tea, called red tea in China, is completely fermented before baking. The black tea can nourish stomach. Black tea with milk plays an effective role in curing stomach ulcer. Wulong tea is made by partial fermentation. Wulong tea takes a pharmacological action of dissolve fat into the watery contents so that it is nicknamed “beauty-slimming tea”. The scented tea is made by mixing fragrant flower with tea leaves in the course of processing. The northern people of China are in favor of scented tea. Now, the dried flowers after processing without tea leaves are also called scented tea. Yellow tea, as the name suggests, is featured with yellow leaves and takes on yellow after infusion.
The teahouses in Chengdu are very famous. If you plan to join China travel packages to Chengdu, remember to enter the local teahouse.