Seminar on Tiantai Mountain tea culture held in Zhejiang

A seminar on tea culture in Tiantai Mountain was held Tuesday in Tiantai county, eastern China's Zhejiang province. The event brought together tea industry leaders, scholars, and major enterprises to explore new pathways for high-quality development in the local tea sector.

A seminar on tea culture in Tiantai Mountain is held in Tiantai county, Zhejiang province, May 19, 2026. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Centered on tea culture, industry integration, and economic development, the event featured a series of strategic cooperation agreements and new product launches aimed at injecting fresh momentum into Tiantai's tea economy.

Tiantai has cultivated tea for more than 1,800 years and is home to 103,000 mu (6,867 hectares) of tea plantations. Renowned for its rich cultural heritage and favorable ecological conditions, the county occupies a distinctive place in Zhejiang province's tea industry.

Tiantai Yunwu Tea, grown in mountainous terrain, is prized for its fresh, lingering sweetness and delicate floral aroma. Local officials have increasingly promoted the tea as a signature summer beverage suited to leisure and everyday consumption.

In recent years, Tiantai has implemented an integrated development strategy combining tea culture, the tea industry, and tea technology, while leveraging national partnerships to transform the sector from traditional cultivation by diversifying and extending its entire industrial chain.

A series of agreements signed during the seminar underscored growing cooperation among government agencies, enterprises, and cross-regional industry groups. The collaborations cover brand building, sales channel sharing, product development, and supply chain expansion.

A seminar on tea culture in Tiantai Mountain is held in Tiantai county, Zhejiang province, May 19, 2026. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

One of the event's highlights was the launch of Zheng Shan Tang Tiantai Black Tea, a tea product jointly developed by Chinese tea brand Zheng Shan Tang and Tiantai Mountain Tourism Group. The tea is produced from spring-picked leaves grown at elevations above 600 meters in Tiantai's core tea-producing areas and crafted using centuries-old black tea techniques.

According to representatives of the two sides, the collaboration goes beyond a simple co-branded product. The two sides have established a joint venture intended to combine Tiantai's landscape and cultural resources with Zheng Shan Tang's tea-making expertise and brand influence, turning the area's time-honored tea heritage into a marketable premium product.

Chen Jun, an official from Tiantai county's bureau of agriculture and rural affairs, said Zheng Shan Tang would help expand the national market presence of Tiantai black tea. Zhejiang Tea Group, he said, would bring innovation to ready-to-drink products such as Longjing sparkling tea and black tea sparkling beverages, while a Hubei-based brick tea producer would help Tiantai overcome its reliance on spring tea production by extending the industrial chain and increasing product value.

From cultural discussions to concrete business partnerships, the seminar marked a significant step in transforming Tiantai's tea resources into broader industrial advantages. The growing number of projects and innovative products would strengthen cross-regional collaboration in technology, branding, distribution, and investment, while helping tea cultivation generate greater income for local residents and revitalize the rural economy, the organizers said.