Tea culture refers to the cultural characteristics formed in the process of tea-drinking activities, including the tea ceremony, tea virtues, tea spirit, tea couplets, tea books, tea utensils, tea recipes, tea poems, tea paintings, tea studies, tea stories, tea art and so on. The origin of tea culture is China. China is the hometown of tea, it is said that the Chinese people began to drink tea from the age of Shennong, more than 4700 years. Until now, the Han people still have the custom of using tea as gifts. The preparation of tea by the Han Chinese is varied: there are smoked bean tea from Taihu Lake, scented tea from Suzhou, ginger salt tea from Hunan, Xiajun tea from Shushan, Dongding tea from Taiwan, Longjing tea from Hangzhou, Wulong tea from Fujian, and Liuan Gua Pian from Liuan, and so on.  

People in more than one hundred countries and regions all over the world love to taste tea, and the tea culture of each country is different and has its own characteristics; Chinese tea culture reflects the long civilization and etiquette of the Chinese nation.

China is the home of tea and the birthplace of tea culture. The discovery and utilization of tea in China has a history of more than 4,700 years, and has flourished and spread all over the world. Tea is the national beverage of the Chinese nation, originated from Shennong, famous in Lu Zhou Gong, developed in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, popularized in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Chinese tea culture is a combination of Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist and other schools of thought, and has become a unique individual and a beautiful flower in Chinese culture. At the same time, tea has become the world's most common, most popular, most beneficial to the physical and mental health of the green beverage. Tea is one with heaven and earth, advocating that "all tea drinkers are families".

The connotation of tea culture is actually a specific expression of Chinese culture. China is known as the country of etiquette, the spiritual connotation of tea culture is shown by the combination of habits such as making tea, enjoying tea, smelling tea, drinking tea, tasting tea and Chinese cultural connotations and etiquette, it is a cultural phenomenon or a phenomenon of etiquette with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristic. In ancient China, etiquette was used to decide affinity, determine suspicion, differentiate between the same and different, and distinguish between right and wrong. In the long-term historical development, etiquette, as the moral norms and living standards of Chinese society, has played an important role in the cultivation of the spiritual quality of the Han people; at the same time, with the change and development of the society, etiquette has been continuously endowed with new contents and integrated with the habits and forms of Chinese people's life, forming various cultural phenomena with Chinese characteristics. Tea culture is a representative traditional culture of China. China is not only one of the places of origin of tea, but also has rich and diversified tea-drinking habits and customs in different ethnic groups and regions of China.

Being able to grow and drink tea is not the same as having a tea culture; they are only prerequisites for the formation of a tea culture, which must also involve the participation of the literati and cultural connotations. Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty wrote the Tea Scripture systematically summarized the experience of tea production and drinking in Tang Dynasty and before, put forward the spirit of frugal tea ceremony. A group of cultured people such as Lu Yu and Jiao Ran attached great importance to the spiritual enjoyment and moral norms when drinking tea, paid attention to the tea drinking utensils, water used for tea drinking and the art of tea boiling, and mingled with the philosophical thoughts of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which gradually brought people into their spiritual realm. In the tea drinking process of some scholars and literati, they also created a lot of tea poems, only in the Tang Poetry Collection, there are more than one hundred poets wrote more than four hundred tea poems, thus laying the foundation of the Han tea culture.

Tea culture has a very long history of formation and development. In the period of King Wu's conquest of King Zhou, tea had already become a tribute. In the late primitive commune, tea became an item of goods exchange. By the time of the Warring States period, tea already had a certain scale. The pre-Qin Poetry and Classic General Collection also has tea records.

In Han Dynasty, tea became a special tonic for Buddhist "meditation". During the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, there was already a trend of drinking tea. During the Sui Dynasty, tea was widely consumed by all people. In Tang Dynasty, the tea industry flourished, tea has become a "home can not be a day without tea", teahouse, tea banquets, tea party emerged, advocating guests to toast tea. In Song Dynasty, tea battle, tea tribute and tea giving emerged.

During the Qing Dynasty, opera entered the teahouse and foreign trade in tea developed. Tea culture came into being with the emergence of the commodity economy and the formation of urban culture. Historically, tea culture focused on cultural ideology and elegance, emphasizing poetry, calligraphy and painting, tea tasting, singing and dancing. In its formation and development, tea culture incorporated the philosophical colors of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and evolved into the rituals and folklore of various ethnic groups, becoming an integral part of the excellent traditional culture and a unique cultural model.

The development of material civilization and spiritual civilization has injected new connotation and vitality into tea culture, and in this new period, the connotation and expression of tea culture are constantly expanding, extending, innovating and developing. The new period of tea culture is integrated with modern science and technology, modern news media and the essence of the market economy, so that the value of tea culture function is more significant, the role of the modernized society is further enhanced. The value of tea is the further establishment of the core consciousness of tea culture, tea international exchanges are increasingly frequent. The form of tea culture dissemination in the new period shows the trend of large-scale, modernization, socialization and internationalization. Its connotation and its influence is expanding rapidly, attracting the world's attention.

Famous tea, famous mountains, famous water, celebrities, places of interest have given birth to a distinctive regional tea culture. China's vast expanse, a wide variety of tea, tea drinking customs are also different, the history of each place, culture, life and economic differences have also formed a tea culture with local characteristics. In the economic and cultural center of the big cities, unique urban tea culture has also produced because of its unique advantages and rich connotation.

Ancient Chinese traditional tea culture has evolved into British tea culture, Japanese tea culture, Korean tea culture, Russian tea culture and Moroccan tea culture by combining with the history, culture, economy and humanities of different countries. The Tao of tea in Japan and Taiwan are derived from the Tea Ceremony in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. In the United Kingdom, tea has become a part of life, is the British performance of a gentleman's manners, but also the essential procedures of life and major social activities in the necessary rituals for the Queen of England. The Japanese Tea Ceremony originated in Japan itself but was also influenced by China. Japanese tea ceremony has a strong Japanese national flavor, and formed a unique tea ceremony system, schools and rituals. Tea people don’t care borders, races and beliefs, tea culture can unite the tea people around the world, together with the art of tea, academic exchanges and economic and trade negotiations.