China is the home of tea, which has about 5,000 years of history. People in China drink tea (每日). Of the three major drinks— tea, coffee and cocoa, tea is (喝) by the largest number of people in the world. Tea from China, along with silk and porcelain(瓷器), (开始) to be known by the world over a thousand years ago and has been an important Chinese export since then. It's said that the tea (贸易) from China to Western countries took place in the 1900s.
The word for tea in different languages came from the Chinese character "cha". The English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of it in Xiamen, Fujian Province. The Russians(把……叫做) it "chai", which sounds like "cha ye" as it is pronounced in northern China. The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though it's pronounced a little(不同地).
Tea leaves are(生产) mainly in the area south of the Yangtze River, in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian, because of the mild climate and rich soil there. Longjing, Wulong, Pu'er and Tieguanyin are all famous kinds of tea.
Over the past (世纪), Chinese people have developed(他们) special tea culture, which includes tea planting, tea-leaf picking, tea drinking and so on. Tea is also a popular topic which is often(提到) in dances, songs, poems and novels.
