Thai Nguyen festival features tea culture

A festival to highlight Vietnamese tea and ASEAN culture opened in northern Thai Nguyen province on November 25.
Apart from over 100 local enterprises, cooperatives and trade villages specialising in tea, the event draws 67 delegations from tea-producing countries including Japan, Russia, India and the Republic of Korea. This is part of major activities of the third Thai Nguyen Tea Festival 2015, which officially kicked off in the evening of November 26 in the northern province.
Professional and amateur artists took part in an art programmes in the festival, which imbued traditional culture and highlighted the image of Thai Nguyen’s land and people as well as its tea culture.
Visitors to the festival had a chance to learn about tea-drinking art and enjoy folk dances and music of Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China and India.
According to the organising board, various activities will be held at the Viet Nam Ethnic Cultures Museum in Thai Nguyen within the framework of the festival, including a tea-drying competition and the “tea master cup” contest.
On the occasion, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism opened a space to display culture of ASEAN member nations in the museum, which is expected to contribute to enhancing exchange, cooperation and development in preserving and promoting cultural heritage of the ten regional countries.
Located 75km to the north of Ha Noi, Thai Nguyen is well-known for its tea. The plant has been grown in the province for nearly 100 years.
Tea planting area in the province now totals 21,000 ha with average output of 200,000 tonnes of fresh tea leaves every year.