The Second Tea Culture Summit Forum recently kicked off in the city of Pu'er, Yunnan province.

More than 20 experts from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan attended the event. A number of in-depth discussions on the topics of "tea and human","tea and beliefs" and "tea and nature" were held.

The forum abided by the theme of "tea, culture, ecology". Participants of the event were in general agreement that tea culture has integrated into people's spiritual and material world and blended with elements of Buddhism and Taoism.

Tea culture is believed to be a major paragon of traditional Chinese culture and is thought to contain social functions related to philosophy, religion and ethnics.

The summit forum was co-hosted by the China Academy of Culture Limited and the Institute for Advanced Study of Humanities and Religion.