On May 15, The 4th Tea Culture & Art Festival of China Three Gorges opened in Yiling District. More than 200 people came to visit Yiling tea industry, sample Yiling tea culture and plan Yiling tea industry prospects including businessmen from China, the United States, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other countries .

　　Several provincial leaders attended the opening ceremony including Jiang Daguo, former Deputy Director of Hubei Standing Committee of People\'s Congress and President of Tourism and Culture Development Association, Wang Qing, Vice President of China Tea Circulation Association, Wang Xingyu, Deputy Secretary of Yichang Municipal Party Committee, and other municipal leaders.

　　Yiling District owns 140 km?of tea production base, which produced 17,000 ton last year and the annual value reached 550 million RMB. The comprehensive strength of tea industry ranks second in Hubei and leading enterprises of tea brands and tea intensive processing rise sharply. Tea trademarks "Xiaoshi Tea" and "Dengcun Green Tea" is famous at home and abroad making “Three Gorges Tea City” become the largest distribution center in Mid-south region and major tea trade platform in China. Based on the existing industrial base, Yiling District comes up with the goal of building Yiling District the National Modernized Tea Industry Base. Therefore, this year’s tea festival is sponsored by Tea Association and Tea enterprises with the theme of "Industry, Ecology, Culture, Trade, Exchange and Blend" holding various activities to comprehensively promote and display Yichang (Yiling) tea quality, brands and the image and charm of "Tea City". However,  the festival was government-sponsored in the past.

　　On the 15th, after seeing the transaction scene in "Tea City" Yichang, more than 200 businessmen and experts went to producing areas of Yiling District: Taipingxi Town, Letianxi Town and Deng Village to visit production line of Deng Group and Xiaoshi Tea Technology Park, Xiaoshi Taipingxi Tea Breeding Base, Xiaoshi Tea Group Industrial Park, Tea Culture Exhibition Hall of Longxia Tea Group. Last night, they enjoyed the theme party named "Dengcun Green Tea Night". Zhao Zhao, a tea merchant from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, Yang Mingfei and other marketers believed that this trip to Yiling enhanced their confidence in selling the tea produced in Yichang. Jiang Yongwen, Deputy Director of Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, President of the China Tea Association and Scientist of National Tea Technology System, said they would continue to support Yiling District to build National Modernized Tea Industry Base which integrated production tourism, cultural tourism, product distribution, e-commerce, technology research and development to jointly promote the development of the tea industry in Three Gorges.  (Reporter Li Yulin, Huang Shanguo, Long Yizhou, Correspondent He Ying, Yuan Haochun)