Int'l tea and pottery culture event opens in Rong county

The 11th International Tea Culture Exchange and the 2026 Rong County International Pottery, Tea, and Arts Week opened in Rong County, Sichuan Province, on Aug. 26, drawing pottery and tea experts, scholars, artists, and entrepreneurs from China and abroad to discuss ways of blending traditional culture with modern industry.

The event, which runs through Sept. 1, draws on the county's millennia-old pottery-making tradition and rich tea culture to provide an international platform for cultural exchange, industrial cooperation and tourism development.

An international pottery and tea-themed art exhibition will run alongside demonstrations and exchanges of pottery-making and tea-making techniques. This is offered in parallel to a pottery and tea trade fair featuring products from Rong county held during the week.

Participants can conduct field research on the county's pottery and tea industries, whilst  also being able to attend international academic presentations on pottery and seminars on tea culture. The aim of these are to deepen cooperation, foster greater connections between pottery and tea culture, and create new opportunities for innovation and development.

The pottery-making tradition in Rong county dates back to the pre-Qin period. The county is now estimated to have 1.27 billion metric tons of clay reserves. This clay is known for its rich colors, strong plasticity and diverse functional applications, earning pottery in Rong county the nickname "breathing pottery."

Rong county has been recognized as the "Western China Pottery Capital" and the "China Liquor Jar Capital." "Rong County Earthenware" has been granted a national geographical indication certification trademark, while its traditional pottery-making techniques have been included on Sichuan province's intangible cultural heritage list and traditional crafts revitalization program. 

The county's pottery industry has also been recognized as a distinctive industry cluster among small and medium-sized enterprises in Sichuan.

The county currently has 185 pottery-related businesses employing more than 10,000 people. Its product range includes liquor jars, fermentation jars and wine storage vessels, with more than 100 varieties in total. Annual production of liquor jars has exceeded 1.6 million units, accounting for 47% of the national market.

Since 2021, the Rong County Earthenware Creative Industrial Park has attracted 16 nationally and provincially recognized pottery masters. Works created under their guidance have won numerous gold medals at major professional exhibitions and competitions in China and abroad, further raising the profile of the "Rongzhou Pottery" creative brand.

Rong county also has a long history of tea cultivation and processing. It is known as the "Hometown of Chinese Scented Tea" and ranks among Sichuan's top 10 tea-producing counties. Its flagship product, Rong county jasmine tea, has been included in the national list of key development areas for the reprocessed tea industry.

The county has more than 13,333 hectares of tea plantations. It is home to more than 10 tea brands and produces over 120 varieties of green tea and more than 170 varieties of scented tea, with jasmine tea as the main product alongside osmanthus- and gardenia-scented teas.

The county's tea industry generates an annual comprehensive output value of 5.4 billion yuan ($790 million). It has 50 large-scale tea processing enterprises and more than 100 clean and automated production lines, giving it an annual refined tea-processing capacity of 85,000 metric tons.

It exports about 35,000 metric tons of green tea annually, generating more than 600 million yuan in export revenue. Both its processing capacity and export volume rank among the highest in Sichuan.

In recent years, the output value of tea used as a base ingredient for new-style beverages has surpassed two billion yuan in total, as the county accelerates its transition from a traditional producer of premium teas into a major national supply base for the rapidly growing new-style tea beverage industry.