The Second Guangzhou International Tea Culture Festival opened Friday in this capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

During the three-day event, a variety of activities were staged, including a tea fair, a tea culture symposium, a tea business symposium and a tea-tasting contest, according to sources.

The tea fair had 230 exhibition stands, attracting tea businesspeople from Fujian, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces.

The tea culture symposium featured discussions over opportunities and challenges facing China's tea industry after thecountry's World Trade Organization entry.

A Guangzhou government-sponsored website (www.sxs.org.cn) was also opened for publicity of the tea festival and Chinese tea culture in Chinese and some foreign languages such as English and Japanese.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2001)