The "Ten Thousand Miles Tea Route" is another important international business route that rose in Eurasia after the decline of the Silk Road in China. From Chongan (now Wuyishan City) in Fujian Province, the tea route passes through Mongolia to Kyakhta, a treaty port on the border of China and Russia.
The whole journey is about 4760 km, including 1480 km by water and 3280 km by land. Later on, the tea route continued to extend in Russia, through more than a dozen cities to Petersburg, and into other countries in Central Asia and Europe. The final length of the tea road extended to 13,000 kilometers, becoming a true " Ten Thousand Miles Tea Route."
At the invitation of the Chinese Culture Promotion Society (CCPS), Mr. James Shen, Chairman of Australia Tea Society, went to Xiaogan, Hubei Province, from 17th to 20th April to participate in the 9th China-Mongolia-Russia Tea Road City Cooperation Conference.
At the " City Cooperation Conference Roundtable", one of the key conference events, James Shen was invited to speak. James said: "For hundreds of years, tea culture has not only promoted trade among the cities along the 'Tea Route', but also strengthened cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia.
Although Australia is not part of the 'Tea Route', tea has always been a strong link between human cultures." James detailed Australia's advantages in the fields of agricultural mechanization, medicine, and biological research, as well as its extraction technology, and showed that the relevant enterprises and institutions in tea cultivation, production, and biological extraction in the cities along the "Ten Thousand Miles Tea Route" have advantages to cooperate with Australia.
He also pointed out that as a nation of immigrants, Victoria is home to immigrants from 183 countries and territories. With the Australian platform, we can jointly create a tea brand with global influence like T2."
At the conclusion of the "City Cooperation Roundtable", Australia Tea Society and the Chinese Culture Promotion Society (CCPS) signed a cooperation framework agreement. The agreement includes a commitment to assist Australia Tea Society in its planned Tea Culture Museum project and to use resources to jointly establish an Australia-China cultural exchange platform, particularly in the "International Tea Tour" and Australia-China youth tea culture education cooperation.
In addition, Australia Tea Society has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Hubei Provincial Tea Import and Export Association’, hoping to jointly promote the development of tea trade through the exchange of tea culture and the collaboration of the "International Tea Tour" project.
After the City Cooperation Conference, James was invited by Mr. Tian Kaiyu, Managing Director of Hubei Three Gorges Family Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. to visit Hubei Sanxia Shijia Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. headquarters in Wuhan. There, he introduced the investment environment in Australia to Mr. Tian and his team. Mr. Tian showed a strong interest in cooperative projects in the field of agricultural and biological scientific research, and entrusted James to look for specific investment projects, promising to personally visit Australia in the near future.
The trip to Hubei was fruitful. We have not only signed a cultural cooperation framework agreement with the Chinese Culture Promotion Society(CCPS), but also signed a ‘Strategic Cooperation Agreement’ with the ‘Hubei Provincial Tea Import and Export Association’ to promote tea trade.
In addition, in terms of the implementation of specific projects, we accepted the authorised of Hubei Sanxia Shijia Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. We will work together to launch a national health campaigned in Australia with the theme of "healthy tea drinking", and strive to make positive contributions to the cooperation in the fields of tea culture exchange, tea trade expansion and tea culture tourism at an early date.