Green tea contains antioxidant chemicals that may help ward off the cell damage that can lead to disease. Researchers have been studying green tea’s effect on everything from cholesterol to the risk of certain cancers, with mixed results so far.

For the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers decided to examine the question of whether green tea drinkers have a lower risk of frailty and disability as they grow older.

Yasutake Tomata of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and his colleagues followed nearly 14,000 adults aged 65 or older for three years.

They found those who drank the most green tea were the least likely to develop "functional disability," or problems with daily activities or basic needs, such as dressing or bathing.

Specifically, almost 13 percent of adults who drank less than a cup of green tea per day became functionally disabled, compared with just over 7 percent of people who drank at least five cups a day.

"Green tea consumption is significantly associated with a lower risk of incident functional disability, even after adjustment for possible confounding factors," Tomata and his colleagues wrote.

The study did not prove that green tea alone kept people spry as they grew older.

Green-tea lovers generally had healthier diets, including more fish, vegetables and fruit, as well as more education, lower smoking rates, fewer heart attacks and strokes, and greater mental sharpness.

They also tended to be more socially active and have more friends and family to rely on.

But even with those factors accounted for, green tea itself was tied to a lower disability risk, the researchers said.

People who drank at least five cups a day were one-third less likely to develop disabilities than those who had less than a cup per day. Those people who averaged three or four cups a day had a 25 percent lower risk.

Although it’s not clear how green tea might offer a buffer against disability, Tomata’s team did note that one recent study found green tea extracts seem to boost leg muscle strength in older women.

While green tea and its extracts are considered safe in small amounts, they do contain caffeine and small amounts of vitamin K, which means it could interfere with drugs that prevent blood clotting. SOURCE: bit.ly/wXuZbl

(Reporting from New York by Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Paul Tait)

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The scenic site, best known for the Shaolin Temple, which has been recognized as the origin of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Chinese kungfu, was found to have poor management and failed to meet the criteria of national 5A class tourist attractions, China’s top rating for scenic spots, in terms of service, quality and environment.

The National Quality Ranking Committee of Tourist Attractions issued a notice on Dec 4, 2011 requiring the scenic spot to launch and complete an overhaul of its operations before the end of March 2012.

It will lose its 5A rating if it still cannot meet the criteria after the overhaul, according to the notice.

The Shaolin Temple scenic spot was rated by the National Tourism Administration as a national 5A class tourist attraction in May 2007. It is the first time it faces the risk of losing its 5A class.

The local tourism administration has been ordered to address the problems urgently and properly.

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"Right now everyone is talking about the rise of China. In my opinion, Chinese tea should bethe symbol of that rise, much as Louis Vuitton bags and Porsche or Ferrari sports cars are,"said Lin, deputy general manager of Eight Horses Tea Co Ltd.

The company, along with four other tea producers from Anxi county in Fujian province, will soonopen its first marketing center for Oolong tea in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, an area in the 6tharrondissement in Paris.

"With the launch of the marketing center, we plan to enter the core area of the high-end marketin Europe and build up our networks and regional influences," said Lin.

In April, Eight Horses and its partners entered into an agreement as a group with a Europeanpartner, Leblond Gre’gory. According to this agreement, the five companies will operate thecenter jointly with the brand name Anxi Tieguanyin, aiming to provide tea as a luxury productfor the European premium market.

Tieguanyin, or Iron Goddess of Mercy, is a renowned variety of Chinese Oolong. According tolegend, an iron statue of Guanyin, or the Goddess of Mercy, gave a farmer the tea and helpedthe poor to prosper. The grateful farmer named the tea Tieguanyin.

"The European market is the symbolic spot for Chinese tea companies to go global, especiallyParis, which hosts many luxury brands," said Wang Wenli, head of the Anxi Tieguanyin TeaAssociation.

"Through this marketing center, we would like to promote Tieguanyin as a luxury product andlook for a broader international market," Wang said.

Every year, China exports about 20,000 tons of Oolong at a price of between $2 and $3 akilogram (kg). In Lin’s opinion, the current export price is not consistent with the value of theproduct. "Tea is a good and fine product, not just some raw material for industrial processing ofbottled drinks."

The company has more than 800 stores across China, with annual domestic sales of 1,000tons. It exported 2,000 tons of Oolong in 2010, accounting for 15 percent of China’s annualexport of the tea.

The first container of Tieguanyin has already been shipped to Paris, and is likely to be pricedat a range between 50 euros ($64.6) and 500 euros a kg.

The center will be ready by Chinese Spring Festival in late January and the five companies willtogether invest about 30 million yuan ($4.76 million) for the initial construction, managementand promotion.

Lin, however, does not expect huge profits or record sales in the short term.

"Chinese tea used to be a prized possession among the upper classes in Europe some 300years ago for its health benefits," he said. "What’s more important is that we are back in thehigh-end market, and promoting the Anxi Tieguanyin brand."

The center will be spread over 100 square meters and divided into a sales zone and a tastingzone. It will also host various cultural activities to promote tea culture.

Lin said that the main barrier to the promotion of Tieguanyin in Europe is the lack of Chinesetea culture.

"Previously our products were mainly sold overseas in bulk. Now we want to sell packaged teaat a much higher price. Western consumers may need time to accept the fact that tea can bereally expensive.

"The second issue is the tea-making process. Europeans are used to drinking the beveragewith tea bags. But traditionally, Chinese tea needs to be treated with more complicatedprocedures. Also, tea tasting requires a certain understanding of the Chinese tea culture."

Besides tea sales, tea-making performances and training courses will be held on a regularbasis for consumers.

Lin hopes that the new marketing center will provide a template for local producers to changetheir strategy in international markets.

"We want to raise another round of Chinese tea mania in Europe," Lin said.

He expects Tieguanyin to be popular in the European Union within five years. "It is our aim, butit all depends on our long-term efforts."

Shen Qing, CEO of King Building, a Beijing-based company that specializes in industryplanning and marketing, said that Chinese companies should figure out a way to make the besttea at the lowest possible price, just as Lipton’s Teas – owned by Unilever PLC – does. That isthe only way for domestic producers to make a successful return to the global market, Shensaid.

Source:  China Daily

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About 1.1 million mainland tourists visited Taiwan in groups and 22,000 as individuals, Yang Yi, spokesman of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a regular press conference.

More than 5,000 mainland tourists are visiting Taiwan every day, Yang said.

According to Yang, about 20 million to 30 million mainland tourists travel to Hong Kong annually, but only 1.22 million visited Taiwan in 2010.

"There will be a good future and great potential for attracting mainland tourists to Taiwan, as long as the cross-Strait relations maintain sound development," Yang said.

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A tai chi theme park will be built in Shiyan city, Hubei province, which is home to the Wudang Mountains, kungfu’s birthplace.

Invested by Los Angeles-based Ikonic Entertainment Group and the Shiyan-based Taichi Lake Group, with Ikonic Entertainment providing concept creation and schematic design, the project will present the landscapes of the Wudang mountains and reflect the region’s strong Taoist culture.

A grand open-air performance, titled The Tai Chi Legend, will also be staged on water next to the park. TV series director Zhang Jizhong has been invited to serve as the open-air show’s artistic director.

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In October, Chinese mainland visitor arrivals rose 24.9 percent to more than 2.5 million, due to the Golden Week holiday and trade shows.

In the first 10 months this year, there were 23 million mainland visitor arrivals, 23.7 percent higher than the figure for last year.

The short-haul market regions also recorded growth in October, with North Asia showing the best performance. In Japan, with its recovery in outbound travel, arrivals to Hong Kong increased 4.6 percent year-on-year to more than 100,000.

Arrivals from Thailand dropped 3.7 percent due to the flooding in the country.

For the long-haul markets, the slow recovery of the U.S. economy and the European debt crisis caused arrivals to fall 1.8 percent in October.

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Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s tea exports to China grew noticeably this year compared with last year, mainly because of a trade agreement that was signed between the two sides in 2010, the Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) said Wednesday.

In the period January to November this year, Taiwan shipped 596 metric tons of tea to China, with a total value of US$8.15 million (NT$247 million), which represented an annual increase of 11 percent in quantity and 52 percent in value, respectively, said Su Mao-shiang, secretary-general of the AFA at a tea promotion event in Nantou County.

Taiwan’s tea exports to China are expected to increase further next year, as China will lift all tariffs on the product in 2012 under the terms of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with Taiwan, Su said.

Currently, there is a 5 percent tariff on Taiwan tea imports to China.

Taiwan tea producers have also benefitted from a government program that offers advice in areas such as packaging, which has helped to increase domestic and international sales, the AFA said.

For example, farmers associations in parts of Chiayi and Nantou counties that participated in the program have become more creative, incorporating geographical and cultural characteristics into their packaging, the AFA said.

The Meishan Township farmers association in Chiayi, for instance, has included images of Alishan on its packaging, the agency said.

To monitor the quality of Taiwan tea, up to 13 special tea zones have been established by the AFA throughout Taiwan. A total of 174 tea manufacturers in certain townships have received AFA verification of their products.

Among the products that have been verified are brands such as Taiwan’s Lugu Township’s Dong Ding Oolong Tea, Alishan High Mountain Oolong, Wen Shang Baozhong Tea, Ruisui Township Tianhe Tea, Beipu Town

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The findings, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, showed that green tea trimmed 5 to 6 points more from people’s total cholesterol and "bad" LDL cholesterol levels than dummy capsules or other treatments.

The trials tested either green tea itself or capsules containing green-tea compounds called catechins, which are thought to decrease cholesterol absorption in the gut.

Green tea in a cup was more consistently effective than capsules, though the benefits overall were fairly small, notes senior researcher Olivia Phung, an assistant professor of pharmacy at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.

Reuters

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"I prefer coffee to tea," said Wang Yan, a 25-year-old downtown girl in Beijing. "Drinking coffee refreshes me and makes me feel chic."

The history of Chinese tea is a long and gradual story of refinement. The original idea is credited to the legendary Emperor Shennong, who is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One summer day in 2737 BC, while visiting a distant part of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. During the break, his servants began to boil water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and became infused. Being of a scientific nature, the emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it tasty.

Thereafter, tea and China developed an extremely close relationship, with a culture springing up alongside its consumption based on a combination of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist traditions.

After thousands of years of the development of the tea industry, China has become the No 1 tea maker, producing 1.47 million tons in 2010, up from 1.36 million tons in 2009, according to the China Tea Association. Per capita consumption was 0.7 million tons. It exports tea to more than 120 countries and regions and imports tea from more than 50 countries and regions.

"Drinking tea is a kind of pastime leisure, but daily work and life is getting faster and more stressful in China, which makes the two activities contradictory," said Liu Zhonghua, deputy director at the China Tea Association, speaking at the 2011 International Tea Convention and Trade Fair in Hangzhou.

Mao Limin, a tea expert, said: "Tea is a very healthy but more and more younger Chinese are cutting back their consumption."

Paul Higgins, a tea specialist with the Canadian Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee Inc, said: "While Chinese tea consumption is dropping, interestingly, Western countries are drinking more tea for its health benefits."

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the British drink 1.89 kilos each a year, more than twice the 0.82 kilos consumed per capita in China.

Marco Berton, the president of the Italian Tea Council said at the tea convention: "Although Italy is a ‘coffee country’ more people are turning to tea, especially green tea and Oolong tea from China."

Liu added: "One way to increase tea consumption in China is to improve tea bag production instead of using traditional tea leaves in order to cope with the fast pace of life." He also said another approach is to develop crossovers in the industry, such as introducing new tea products which have low caffeine levels or can be used in the beauty and pharmaceutical sectors. There is already a tea-flavored toothpaste.

"We have introduced specialty teas to Canadians. They love them and are enjoying more and more green tea because of the health benefits," said Louise Roberge, president of the Canadian Tea Council.

"I don’t like focusing too much on introducing new technologies or products into traditional Chinese teas," said Yang Ruiling, managing vice-president of the Hecheng Investment and Development Group Co Ltd in Southwest China’s Yunnan province. "How relaxing it will be if one just slows down, enjoys a cup of tea, tries to reach a balance or an inner peace after a hard and busy day."

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