On June 5th, GZU held an opening ceremony for the third "Guizhou Green Tea Cup" College-level Tea Art Skill Competition and Guizhou Tea Brewing Contest in the lecture hall of the library on GZU’s West Campus. Fu Chuanyao, former Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress, President of the Provincial Tea Culture Research Association, and Director of the Advisory Committee on Strategic Development of Tea College, attended the event. Also present at the ceremony were GZU leaders including Li Jianjun and Luo Changjiang; key coordinators from relevant departments of GZU; competition judges; and student and faculty representatives from the College of Tea.

Li Jianjun, Secretary of the GZU Party Committee, delivered a speech. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to leaders of all levels who have been supportive of the development of GZU over the years. He also thanked the Provincial Green Tea Brand Promotion Association, Provincial Tea Office and tea businesses. He noted that the "Guizhou Green Tea Cup" Tea Art Skill Competition serves as an important communication platform through which students can practice professional skills, pursue innovative ideas and work collaboratively. In addition, this event has created a great channel for people to promote profound Chinese tea culture and China's remarkable traditional customs. Aiming to promote and popularize Guizhou tea featured by “Guizhou Brewing”, the event seeks to further expand the sale of Guizhou tea, in turn increasing its fame. He hopes that the College of Tea will maintain their efforts to make the event more influential, distinctive, and upscale. He also expects wonderful outcomes from this event.

Fu Chuanyao also gave a speech. Using interesting and detailed stories, he introduced the history and the culture of tea as well as the tea industry in Guizhou. He noted that Guizhou’s tea planting area covers 1.153 million acres, the largest size for tea planting in China. Guizhou is one of the provinces that produces the best tea in the country. Along with great effort people have put in to promoting Guizhou tea throughout China and even across the globe, this competition has also become vital. He hopes that through this event, more universities will participate in promoting and spreading tea culture, which will contribute to the growth of Guizhou’s tea industry.

Following the ceremony, the brewing skill and tea-setting design competition kicked off. Thirty students participated in the competition, during which they demonstrated a series of sophisticated skills for various occasions, including greeting guests, arranging sets, brewing tea, serving tea, and finishing serving. Hu Jicheng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Department of Agricultural and Rural Affairs of Guizhou, and also Deputy Director of the Department, put forward the concept of "Guizhou Brewing" , which involves a number of techniques such as "using hot water, adding plenty of tea leaves, pouring water into cups quickly, not washing tea, and separating tea leaves from tea water". Finally, Hu Jicheng concluded that brewing tea in hot water and not washing tea are typical features for Guizhou tea.

Top ten contestants selected from the preliminary competition entered the final competition in the afternoon. The final competition featured a variety of artistic elements such as music, fine arts, rituals and architecture. The contestants demonstrated their unique, free, and innovative tea art skills. At the end of the competition, three contestants were awarded first, second, and third prize respectively and the rest won Excellence Awards.

The Guizhou Green Tea Brand Development Promotion Association, GZU Office of Academic Affairs, and Youth League Committee hosted the event .It was organized by the College of Tea.

Text: Yin Zixi (Xishan Integrated Media)

Photography: Kang Rui (Xishan Integrated Media)  

Chief Editor: Fan Jiajia

Senior Editor: Tang Juan

Translator: Li Xiaorong

Proofreading: Zoe Novak, Zhou Jie