The 2012 Beijing International Tea Expo kicked off at Beijing Exhibition Center last Saturday. Over 300 domestic and foreign enterprises from the tea industry showed up at the four-day event, displaying several hundred kinds of tea, tea ware, drinks, tea food, and tea crafts.

China now boasts the world's largest producer and consumer of tea. In 2011 alone, the annual production reached 1.6 million metric tons, and domestic consumption stood at 1.3 million tons, according to the official website of the Tea Expo 2012.

Tea culture is one of the nation's cultural heritages passed down for thousands of years.

Models demonstrate tea-making techniques at the Tea Expo 2012, Beijing, June 16, 2012. [Photo/CFP]