Fan Zengping, director-general of the Taiwan Chinese Tea Culture Association addresses the First Exchange of Tea Culture Between Beijing and Taiwan, June 24, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chen Yunjun, standing director of China International Tea Culture Institute, talked about the differences of tea culture in China and Japan as well as the relation between Chinese tea culture and Zen.

"Japanese tea ceremony is famous for its silent rites, yet only a few people have tea or matcha daily. Most Japanese drink sencha. However, tea is part of Chinese people's everyday life," Chen said.

Quoting Buddhist master Jinghui on tea culture, Chen said the spirit of Chinese tea culture can boil down to four Chinese characters: zheng (正 integrity), qing (清 purity), he (和 harmony) and ya (雅 elegance).

"Our traditional tea culture is an important cultural heritage that connects people in Chinese mainland and Taiwan. We hope it will go on to play bigger role, bridging the two sides closely."

About 100 tea masters and representatives attended the event, sharing the same passion for Chinese tea culture.