Helen Deng

A MAJOR part of the long-anticipated OCT East resort opened to tourists Saturday, offering urban residents an escape from the bustle of city life.

Tea Stream Valley, a two-square-kilometer theme park situated at an altitude of 300 meters among the hills of eastern Shenzhen, combines eco-tourism, outdoor sports, a hotel and spa, shows, dining and shopping.

Tea Stream Valley is one of three major areas of OCT East, a nine-square-kilometer resort. Apart from the tea-themed park, the resort also includes a sports area, Wind Valley and a park, Knight Valley. Wind Valley, which features a golf course, has already opened, but Knight Valley is still under construction.

Tea Stream Valley is worth a whole day’s trip, with a miniature town recreating the holiday resort of Interlaken in the Swiss Alps, an Ancient Tea Town featuring Chinese-style buildings and Chinese tea ceremonies; the Sanzhou Tea Garden, and an Art Garden featuring colorful wetland flowers.

As you step into Tea Stream Valley, the lively and colorful Interlaken Town immediately catches your attention. While strolling around the town, you can experience European life.

Inside Interlaken Town there is the luxury five-star Interlaken OCT Hotel with a garden-like lobby and lavish presidential suite. Various Chinese, Japanese and Italian-style dishes are served here.

For spa lovers, there are also a 6,000-square-meter indoor spa, a 5,000-square-meter outdoor spa and spa lodges in the town, offering treatments using the abundant mineral water in the area.

Ancient Tea Town, which is only 200 meters from Interlaken Town, is very different from its Swiss-style neighbor. In Ancient Tea Town, you can watch the preparation of tea, listen to folk songs, and eat vegetarian food made from tea-leaves, tofu, and other local farm produce.

You can also try picking, drying, frying, and baking tealeaves in the town and drink a cup of tea you have prepared yourself. The town’s tea workshop has the most advanced tea-making machine in the nation.

Dominating Tea Stream Valley is a tea garden that extends 1.5 square kilometers, offering beautiful scenery as well as fresh air. Trekking through the tea garden is a pleasant and relaxing experience.

The Art Garden not only has many wetland plants and animals, but also good cycling routes.

If you don’t want to trek or cycle, you can take the Forest Train. The six-kilometer rail line runs through valleys, forests, lakes and tunnels.

Visitors can also view the scenery by taking a ride in a helium balloon, or a cable car. OCT East has the world’s first sightseeing double-slope mountain cable car.

There is even a helicopter parking apron, the first such facility in a Chinese tourist destination.

At night, you can watch a large-scale multimedia performance called “Tea Show” at the luxury Interlaken Theater. Its multidimensional performance creates a spectacular audio-visual impact with one fantastic scene after another, taking you into a dreamy and mystic world of tea-zen. The effects of the performance are highlighted by a huge LED screen, the size of four standard badminton courts.

OCT East is only 20 minutes from Luohu District by bus and two hours from Hong Kong, Macao, and Dongguan. A special bus route linking Baishizhou (白石洲) in Nanshan District and OCT East has been opened.

A 3.5-billion-yuan (US$461 million) OCT group project located in Dameisha, OCT East is a nine-square-kilometer ecological resort aimed at bringing city-dwellers closer to nature.

OCT East comprises three parks: Knight Valley, Tea Stream Valley and Wind Valley. Phase I of the resort opened Saturday, offering a vast array of attractions to the public. Tea Stream Valley, a combination of Western and Eastern cultures, has the natural beauty of Interlaken, a holiday resort in the Swiss Alps, and the beauty of Chinese tea ceremonies. Wind Valley features sports, The Interlaken OCT Hotel, Mineral Spring Spa, the First International Mountain Song Fest, and the Tea Show.

The second phase of the project, Knight Valley, will open during the Spring Festival in 2008. This park will feature forests, rivers and outer space, Red Wine Town and the Statue of Guanyin Sitting in a Lotus Throne.