Tourism officials promote Tea Road at Wuhan conference

Officials from China, Mongolia and Russia signed an action plan for joint efforts on exploring and promoting tourism of the ancient Tea Road at the Seventh Tourism Ministerial Conference of China, Russia and Mongolia on Tuesday morning in Wuhan, Hubei province.

The ancient Tea Road appeared in the 17th century when merchants transported tea products and then other goods from South China to Mongolia and Russia, spanning more than 200 cities and 13,000 kilometers.

It started from Wuyishan, a city in Fujian province, passed through Mongolia and stretched all the way to St. Petersburg in Russia.

It emerged as a renowned international trade channel, thriving for more than two centuries while serving as a vital part of the well-known Silk Road.

"The geographical proximity of our three countries and the close friendship between the peoples have inherent geographical advantages and profound traditional heritage in tourism cooperation," said Du Jiang, vice-minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. "We will continue to improve the China-Russia-Mongolia tourism cooperation mechanism, enrich the content of tourism cooperation and the supply of high-quality tourism."

Dmitrii Vakhrukov, vice-minister of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, and Ganbaatar Myarmarjav, vice-minister of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia, showed their support to China's idea of strengthening trilateral tourism cooperation.

They also expressed that effective measures will be taken to promote the orderly resumption of tourist visits among the three countries and suggested that tourism authorities at all levels of the three countries make joint efforts to continue to effectively promote cross-border tourism routes of the Tea Road.

"Hubei occupies an important position and plays an important role in the development of the ancient Tea Road," Li Shuyong, director of the Hubei Provincial Culture and Tourism Department, said at the Tea Road Culture and Tourism Promotions held after the meeting. "We have important node cities on the route, such as Xianning, Enshi, Wuhan, Yichang and Xiangyang, especially the 'Oriental Tea port' Hankou in Wuhan, which gives Hubei a strong mark in the history of world tea trade."

"With the goal of becoming a world-famous tourist destination, Hubei is developing its tourism industry in a broad pattern, making great efforts to build tourism projects, expanding tourism cooperation with a broad vision," she said. "We believe we can release more opportunities for cooperation and development."

"Since the 17th century, Hankou has gradually become the largest distribution center for the export of tea from other producing areas in China," Xiao Min, director of Wuhan cultural and tourism bureau, said as she promoted the city's tourism. "It is also the birthplace of China's modern tea industry and has the first factory in modern China to use a steam engine to make tea."

"The city has some well-preserved heritage sites, such as Hankow Customs House, Hankou Dazhimen Railway Station and Hankou Russian Merchants' Building Cluster, providing an endless vitality to the ancient Tea Road," she added.

Representatives from the provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi as well as foreign countries including Singapore and Iran also gave presentations to promote their tourism resources.

"Tea is a beautiful international business card of Fujian," said Xiao Changpei, deputy director of the Fujian Provincial Culture and Tourism Department. "There are six types of tea across the world, while Fujian produces five of them except dark green tea."

"The province saw an annual output of 520,000 metric tons of tea in 2022, and the output value of the whole tea industry chain exceeded 150 billion yuan," he said.

"The ancient Tea Road was included in the short list to bid for UNESCO World Heritage on March 20, 2019," he said. "As the starting point of the Tea Road, Wuyishan city has a large number of representative materials and cultural heritage as well as rich experience and advanced paradigms in heritage protection."