A Passage to China (走近中国) - Cuisine, China, the Homeland of Tea

Of the three major beverages of the world – tea, coffee and cocoa – tea is consumed by the largest number of people. China is the homeland of tea. It is believed that China has tea-shrubts as early as five to six thousand years ago, a human cultivation of tea plants that dates back two thousand years. 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 that forty countries in the world grow tea with Asian countries producing 90% of the world’s total output. All the tea trees in other countries have their origin directly to indirectly in China. The word for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character cha.

The Russians call it cha’i, which sounds like chaye (tea leaves) as it pronounced in northern China. The English word tea sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). 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.

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