The project “Traditional Chinese Tea Manufacturing Techniques and Related Customs” was successfully applied for the World Heritage

On the evening of November 29th, Beijing time, the “Chinese traditional tea manufacturing techniques and related customs” passed the review at the 17th ordinary session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO held in Rabat, Morocco, and was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humans. So far, China has 43 projects listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, ranking first in the world.

“Chinese traditional tea manufacturing techniques and related customs” refer to the knowledge, techniques and practices related to tea garden management, tea picking, tea handmaking, tea drinking and sharing. Since ancient times, the Chinese people have been planting, picking, making and drinking tea. According to the local customs, tea processing masters have developed six kinds of tea besides flower tea, including green tea, yellow tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea and dark tea with more than 2000 kinds of tea products by using the core techniques of green fixing, yellowing, heaping, withering, fermentation, scenting, etc. From this, different tea customs have been formed and passed down from generation to generation, and have been throughout the daily life.

The drinking and sharing of tea is an important way for people to communicate. The etiquette related to tea, such as tea hospitality and the elderly first, shows Chinese people’s humanistic spirit of modesty, harmony, courtesy and respect. Driven and promoted by tea culture, China’s tea industry has developed rapidly and the level of tea science and technology has been steadily improved.