The Homeland of Tea---China

Few days ago, I heard of one friend of mine who now studying abroad brought a lot of tea with him when he came back to his school last time. We ask him why take so much tea, he said Chinese tea are famous overseas and not easy to buy, lots of his friends like to drink Chinese tea, so he take some to his friends as a gift.

Indeed, most of Chinese drinking tea as a major part of daily life. China is the homeland of tea. Chinese tea consists of not only the material aspect but also the spiritual and cultural aspect. Of the three major beverages of the world-- tea, coffee and cocoa-- tea is consumed by the largest number of people in the world. Drinking tea has been popular since the ancient time. Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export.

At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The word for tea as a drink in many countries is derivatives from the Chinese character "cha." The Russians call it "cha'i", which sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China. The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and is still on the increase.