

Foreign Friends Picking Spring Tea, one of the activities of the Fourth China Tea Festival, was held in Pujiang County, Sichuan Province on March 17. Pang Te Cheng, Singaporean Consul General in Chengdu, Komate Kamalanavin, Thai Consul General in Chengdu, and Claudia Spahl, German Deputy Consul General in Chengdu, were among more than 60 commercial representatives, experts, scholars and students from Germany, Colombia, Israel, Australia, the United States and Ukraine, taking part.
In warm sunshine and breathing fresh mountain air, the foreign participants, each with a bamboo basket attached to their waist, plucked new leaves at an ecological tea garden. Afterwards, they watched the tea-making process and sampled the spring tea. The light green leaves floating in the teacups and the fragrant smell proved intoxicating.
They also visited a rural school in Pujiang and had discussions with teachers and students. In the classroom where tea ceremony is taught, a teacher in English gave an introduction to the traditional Chinese tea etiquette and invited the visitors to take part. On the school’s playground, students put on a tea culture show and demonstrated their calligraphic and painting skills.
The participants said that this meaningful activity had deepened their knowledge about the culture of Chengdu and enabled them to learn the city’s great achievements in its coordinated urban-rural development and its charm derived from its long history. Chengdu is also known as the “city of success”.
The activity was jointly sponsored by China Tea Science Society and the Chengdu People’s Government, and organized by the Sichuan Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Chengdu Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.