It will feature promotions for new products, tea contests and tea art performances.

To encourage tea consumption, a trade fair will be held from April 22 to May 3 at the Zhabei Stadium.

For the first time, the festival will feature tea tourism activities centered around famous tea-growing and tea culture locales. Two routes, one in Shanghai and one from Shanghai to Anhui, will be inaugurated.

On April 22, a special holiday train route will be launched between Shanghai and Lu'an in Anhui. It is sponsored by the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission and the Shanghai Railway Travel Agency.

Inside Shanghai, a group tourism route will be launched - from Daning International Tea City to Songyuan Garden Teahouse to Shanghai Circus World.

Besides tea business and tourism, a series of lectures on tea and healthy living will be held from next Wednesday to April 19 in communities in Zhabei and Changning districts.

A forum "Tea and Urban Life" will be held at Daning next Wednesday.

Tea contests will involve tea brewing, best varieties and performing tea ceremonies. "The Tea King of the Yangtze River Delta" will be named and the Shanghai International Children's Tea Invitational Contest will be held.

Enthusiasts can visit the Songyuan Garden Teahouse to enjoy traditional performances during the festival.

On April 18, a tea exhibition will open at Zhabei Museum of History, featuring historic photos, items of tea culture, calligraphy, paintings and souvenirs.

By the end of last year, 600,000 Netizens had voted the tea festival one of the most popular celebrations during China's 30 years of reform and opening up.

Taking tea, a companionable aspect of urban living, will be featured in the World Expo 2010, "Better City, Better Life."

Songyuan Garden Teahouse

Address: 1667 Gonghexin Rd

Shanghai International Agricultural Exhibition Center

Address: 2268 Hongqiao Rd

Zhabei Museum of History

Address: 118 Zhejiang Rd N.

For more information, visit www.tea-sh.cn.

(Shanghai Daily April 10, 2009)