With a cup of tea in hand you may find it easier to unwind in the relaxed atmosphere of your home or favorite teahouse, especially after a day of hard work.

To honor tea, such an important part of daily Chinese life for thousands of years, the 2008 China Tea Sage Festival opened in Yuhang district of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province on April 25.

Numerous tea cultures throughout Asia originated in China - not surprising because tea itself was first found here, where has been savored for millennia. But drinking it is more than a daily custom. It is seen as an art, a philosophy and a lifestyle that brings harmony and a quiet mind.

Tea is so central to Chinese history that its first expert is remembered more than 1,200 years later - Lu Yu, honored as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to the nation's tea culture.

Lu Yu is best known for his monumental work titled Classic of Tea - or Cha Jing - the first book on cultivating, making and drinking tea.

He was abandoned as a child during a time of war and adopted when he was 3 years old by monks of the Longyun Buddhist Temple, who gave him the name of Lu Yu. Unwilling to become a monk, he ran away from the temple at the age of 13 and spent years as a clown and playwright for a traveling performing troupe before settling down in AD 760 in the mountains near Huzhou in Zhejiang province to study tea growing and its history. Twenty years of research resulted in his seminal work published in 780.

In his book Lu Yu ambitiously presented all that was then known about Chinese tea culture. It is divided into three sections and 10 chapters describing the origins of tea along with its accoutrement, collection, brewing, preparation ceremonies and famous producing areas. Perhaps his greatest contribution is the seventh chapter entitled "Tea Events", which recorded thousands of years in tea developments from legendary times to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

Today the site along Shaoxi River at the foot of Jingshan Mountain where Lu Yu studied tea and wrote the book is still visited by many tea devotees.

Well known for its Jingshan Temple and Lu Yu Spring - which still yields its water today - Yuhang district in Hangzhou is also considered the birthplace of the famed Japanese tea ceremony.

In the second year of Duanping Period of the Southern Song Dynasty (1235 AC), Japanese Buddhist Master Shenyi (1202-1280) came to China to learn from Master Wuzun in Jingshan Temple. After his return to Japan, he introduced the tea preparation ceremony used at the temple, which gradually evolved into the Japanese ceremony still popular today.

In addition to the home of the ceremony, Jingshan Temple is credited as the birthplace of Lu Yu's Classic of Tea, making Yuhang district ideal for the China Tea Sage Festival.