Both the opening ceremony of Third China Three Gorges Tea Culture Art Festival and the closing ceremony of 22nd Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival were held on June 6 in Yiling District, Yichang City. Ma Xuming, Major and Deputy Party Secretary of Yichang, declared activities officially open.

It was informed that the festival was co-sponsored by the Yichang Municipal Government and the Organizing Committee of Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival, over 200 distributors from Shanghai and Hubei, altogether 60 tea enterprises out of 6 countries, such as French, Japan,etc. participated in the festival. The opening ceremony was followed by the Second Three Gorges Tea-tasting Competition, representatives from Dengcun Green Tea Company, Yellow Crane Tower Tea Company and Zhaojun Biological Agriculture Company were awarded the top three prizes respectively, after four matches concerning the skill of tea-savoring, the display of tea products, the performance of colorful tea arts and the debate on tea culture. And this tea festival was also a trade fair just like the Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival. It has been estimated that the agreement between local tea enterprises, such as Xiao Tea Company, Dengcun Green Tea Company, Longxia Tea Company, and more than 30 dealers will reach the amount of 10.5 billion RMB.

Since tea industry has become the regional leading industry and the characteristic industry with great potentials in Yichang, the cooperation between Yichang Municipal Government and the Organizing Committee of Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival provides an opportunity of interaction between tea traders and tea producing areas, which is of great significance of innovating the development concept of tea industry, broadening the market space of tea industry and promoting communication with different tea cultures.   

　　（Repoter Chen Xi, Correspondent Li Zhenwen, Huang Tingting）