Overview

Thehistory of tea science department can be traced back to 1930 when it was a teaand sugarcane part of the National Sun Yat-Sen University. In 1974, theteaching and researching laboratory of tea science was founded in South ChinaAgricultural College. At present, a multi–layer educational system withUndergraduate, graduate and doctorate has been established in tea sciencedepartment. The undergraduate program, graduate program and doctorate programwere authorized in 1977, 1991 and 2003 respectively. In 2000, the tea major ofSouth China Agricultural University was approved by the Ministry of educationas the nation's priority to protect for development of a nationaldistinguishing major. In 2008, the tea science laboratory was sponsored by bothGuangdong province government and the Ministry of Finance to build as adistinguishing laboratory.

TheUndergraduate program of tea major at South China Agricultural Universityoffers three educational direction, including tea science, tea processing andtrade, and tea art. Graduate program and doctorate program offer student’sresearches on the follow four fields, tea science, tea processing and trade,tea plant cultivation and germplasm resources, and tea art.

Thereare eight professional laboratories in tea science department, includinglaboratory of tea cultivation and breeding, laboratory of  tea processing, laboratory of teabiochemistry, laboratory of tea appraisal , laboratory of tea beverageprocessing, laboratory of tea art training and show, laboratory of tea deepprocessing and comprehensive utilization and laboratory of tea dishes. Twoin-campus practice bases and more than ten off-campus practice bases of teascience department have been established.

Relyingon the advantages of geographical position and climate in Guangdong, afterdecades of development, tea science discipline has formed its characteristicand superiority, has built a stable teaching and researching team. The team hasdone a series of researches on the field of tea plant cultivation techniques,tea crude, pure and deep processing, comprehensive utilization of tea, controlof tea plant pet and disease, tea biotechnology, mechanization of tea manufacture,tea art and so on.