As the New Year comes, GVTC has received a special gift from Indonesia, which is the 2023 New Year gift sent by the Indonesia Research Institute for Tea and Cinchona (RITC), the partner of our overseas Silk Road Tea Institute. The gift includes a greeting card handwritten by Heri Syahrian, the Head of Research & Development Division in RITC, as well as premium teas developed, produced and marketed by the institute. This is the second gift received by our partner universities from ASEAN countries after the Thai premium tea sent by the Tea and Coffee Institut of Mae Fah Luang University in May, last year.
Yang Huiyuan, a teacher of the Tea Double High-level major, assigned a special assignment to the tea students of Grade of 2022. It is to write a thank-you letter to the Indonesian Institute in English, which allowed the students of tea "double high-level" major to have more sense of participation and harvest through international exchanges. The assignment had an unexpected effect that students have prepared enthusiastic thank-you letters and videos for RITC. Xiao Jin’ai, a student in Tea Art and Tea Culture Class 2 of Grade of 2022 , wrote in the letter: "This is one of the most precious gifts we have received this year, thank our Indonesian friends for giving us the opportunity to know Indonesian tea and tea culture, and hope that the friendship between China and Indonesia will last forever!" Luo Meiyan, a student from Tea Art and Tea Culture Class 1 of Grade of 2022 , introduced in the letter: "The tea major is one of the oldest majors in our school which has rich experience in tea breeding, planting and processing. It has created its own red tea and green tea brands. Meng Liuyu, Tea Production and Processing Technology Class 1 of Grade of 2022, proudly said in the letter: "I majored in tea production and processing technology, and I hope I can send my hand-made tea to my friends in Indonesia for tasting."
The leaders and researchers of the RITC also sent back an email as soon as they received the video, in which they said that they were very grateful to the teachers and students of the professional group for elaborating the New-Year-greeting and thank-you video, which was very warm and touching, and eagerly looking forward to tasting a cup of Chinese tea at the GVTC in the near future!
The above cases are only a microcosm of the foreign exchanges and cooperation of the Tea Double High-level Major in recent years. In 2022, the Double High-levels Plan Tea Cultivation and Tea Processing major of the national and autonomous region has achieved fruitful results internationally. GVTC has reached comprehensive cooperation agreements with research institutes and universities in ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and has built 4 "Silk Road Tea Institute" which have enrolled 35 full-time international students. It has built resources of 10 bilingual tea culture course, including the Chinese Tea Art, developed the construction standards of Silk Road Tea Institute, curriculum standards and tea evaluation standards, and promoted them to relevant international universities and scientific research institutes.
Tea experts from Thailand, Japan, Italy, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and other countries were invited to hold 8 lectures on the Tea Expert Lecture, with about 2,000 participants. GVTC also held 5 online seminars with universities and enterprises in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and other ASEAN countries within the international tea industry. More than 110 tea experts and scholars at home and abroad have participated in this. It has carried out 9 times of training in foreign-related tea culture and tea science and technology, and trained more than 2,400 teachers and students, enterprise employees and tea practitioners in overseas colleges. In addition, for Thailand and Indonesia, we have conducted 2 tea-tasting customized training, such as Silk Road Tea Institute Tea Flavor Cloud-Tasting Workshop, which had about 500 audiences. The international influence of Silk Road Tea Institute of our school is gradually increasing in Southeast Asia and South Asia, gradually forming a GVTC tea brand of international tea culture exchange and cooperation.
Year 2023 is the final year of the construction of the national project of "Double High-level Plan" Tea Cultivation and Tea Processing, but the internationalization of Tea Cultivation and Tea Processing majors still have a long way to go. GVTC will continue relying on the Silk Road Tea Institute to actively integrate into and serve the construction of the "Belt and Road Initiative"; to promote the high-quality development of international cooperation in schools operation; to expand partnerships with scientific research institutions and colleges in ASEAN countries in tea culture dissemination, promotion and exchange; and to make our international cooperation and exchange projects into a brand with characteristics.