Tea culture wows expats in Ningbo

In celebration of International Tea Day, which falls on May 21, a group of expats recently visited Ninghai county in Ningbo, Zhejiang province to explore traditional Chinese tea culture.

The five expats are international students from Ningbo University who are interested in traditional Chinese culture. On May 18, they attended a special tea class at a primary school in Ninghai's Shenzhen town and learned about tea culture, including the history of tea, tea growing and production, and tea ceremonies.

Li Boyu, a fourth grader who has been learning tea arts for four years, is one of the class's teachers. She demonstrated a traditional Chinese tea ceremony for expats.

"It's interesting," said American student Coretta, "I'll share it with my friends." 

Shenzhen town is the main tea production area in Ninghai county. Its total tea plantation area exceeds 600 hectares, most of which is in the foothills. In 2022, the town's tea yield was 56 metric tons, surpassing 50 million yuan ($7.12 million) in value.

Watch the video to see the highlights! 

[Video by Zhang Haiyu for chinadaily.com.cn]