Guangdong Tea Industry Skills Competition Opens in Chaozhou, Focusing on Tea Making, Evaluation, and Artistry

From October 15 to 17, the 2026 Guangdong Provincial Tea Industry Vocational Skills Competition was held in Chaozhou. This event is a Category I vocational skills competition in Guangdong Province, jointly hosted by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and the Chaozhou Municipal People's Government. With the theme "Competing Skills in Tea Country, Striving for Aroma of Guangdong Tea," it featured three major competition events: tea processing workers, tea evaluators, and tea artists. The competition was divided into three venues: Fenghuang Town in Chao'an District, Shangrao Town in Raoping County, and Chaozhou Technician College. The venues were set directly in tea mountains, tea factories, and schools, embodying the concept of "the competition venue is the workshop, and the contest is practical training." The entire competition was benchmarked against national vocational skill standards, adhered to a practical orientation, integrated theoretical assessment into practical sessions, and comprehensively tested the participants' comprehensive professional abilities in tea making, evaluation, and artistry.^[1]

The competition attracted 148 participants from 21 cities across the province as well as Hong Kong and Macao. Among them, tea processing workers and tea evaluators had a staff group, while tea artists were divided into staff and student groups. The tea processing worker venue was set in Fenghuang Town, Chao'an District, where 38 tea-making experts competed in two processing directions: oolong tea and black tea, benchmarked against the national vocational skill level 2 (technician) standard, covering the entire process from fresh leaf handling, withering, fixation, rolling, to drying. The tea evaluator venue was set at the Raobei Talent Training Base in Shangrao Town, Raoping County, where 36 tea evaluation experts engaged in a sensory showdown across four major stages: tea shape identification, aroma sequencing, quality assessment, and blending analysis. The tea artist venue was set at Chaozhou Technician College, where 39 professional tea artists and 35 students competed on the same stage, with segments including tea art demonstration, tea product promotion, and tea infusion tasting.^[1]

As the original production area of Fenghuang Dancong tea, Chaozhou has a solid foundation in the tea industry. In the first half of 2026, the city's tea planting area reached 310,000 mu, with a tea output of 25,200 tons and an output value of approximately 5.681 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%, driving the city's total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery to increase by 3.8 percentage points, with an annual growth contribution rate of 53%. The competition was equipped with a comprehensive incentive system. Award-winning participants can apply for vocational skill level certificates such as senior worker, technician, and senior technician according to policies. Those with top rankings will qualify to represent Guangdong Province in the national vocational skills competition. The competition's judging team consisted of senior industry experts, senior tea-making and tea-evaluating masters, and national and provincial-level representative inheritors of tea art intangible cultural heritage, who strictly followed the competition regulations throughout the event.^[1]