Foreign ambassadors explore Vietnam’s tea culture

At 6:20 am on Friday, the heritage train departed carrying ambassadors, their spouses and members of the diplomatic corps on a journey to explore Thai Nguyen's tea culture.

The special trip was organized as part of the 2026 Thai Nguyen International Tea Festival, helping promote the region's landscapes, culture and people to international visitors.

During the two-hour journey, the ambassadors and their spouses experienced Thai Nguyen's cultural heritage through then singing and dan tinh performances by the Tay ethnic group, melodies played on Hmong flutes, and a selection of tea-based specialties.

After arriving at Luu Xa Station, the delegation visited Tan Cuong, one of Thai Nguyen's four renowned tea-growing areas.

There, ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions took on the role of local tea artisans, trying their hand at picking and roasting tea leaves to gain a better understanding of the region's traditional tea-making craft.

Moroccan Ambassador to Vietnam Jamale Chouaibi said he had visited several famous tea-growing regions in China and Sri Lanka, among other places, and found it fascinating to experience tea picking and processing alongside local residents.

He said Thai Nguyen tea had considerable development potential and that the locality should step up promotion and marketing efforts to make its tea brand better known in international markets.

On Friday afternoon, the delegates continued their itinerary with a visit to the Museum of Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic Groups, which houses more than 50,000 documents and artifacts related to the country's 54 ethnic groups.

The museum's cultural space, covering more than 40,000 square meters, offered further opportunities to experience local traditions, including listening to Hmong flute music outside a traditional earthen-walled house and enjoying five-colored sticky rice in a stilt house of the Tay ethnic group.