The 15th Shanghai International Tea Culture Festival will brew up a week of exhibits and trade fairs starting May 9, the Zhabei District government announced yesterday.

The annual festival will focus on the Tea Trade Fair held from May 10 to 12 at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center, which is the first International Tea Trade Fair to be held in the city.

Top-brand teas will be displayed and sold at the fair. There will also be an exhibition called "Grand View Garden of Tea Culture" containing 80 cultural relics related to tea.

"Although Shanghai grows no tea of its own, the city has become a trade center for tea," said government official Pan Shiwei yesterday.

"But I am worried that the tea culture will be lost because many young people, especially the white-collar workers, prefer coffee to tea," he said.

During the festival, the Putuo District government will hold a conference to discuss plans to renovate Suzhou Creek and attract investment from home and abroad.

The district's government plans to turn a 2.3-kilometer stretch of the creek into a multifunctional service center by 2010 that will combine business, innovative production and tourism along with the renovation of historic buildings.

The conference will be held on May 12 at Daning Four Points Sheraton Grand Hotel, said Sun Guobiao, deputy director of the government of Zhabei District.

The district government will be inviting some of the world's top corporations and investment companies, as well as scholars and experts, to the conference.

(Shanghai Daily April 11, 2008)