Tourists from China take part on the first "Tea Express" along "Great Tea Road", their route is Manchuria - Chita - Ulan-Ude - Irkutsk - Manchuria.

The basis of the first tourist group are Chinese officials and representatives of the national tourist industry, at the end of their trip they will form the final plans for the near future of "The Tea Express."

The route "The Great Tea Road" is declared as a tourism development strategy for Russia until 2020. At the trilateral meeting of the BRICS summit, held in June 2015 in Ufa, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj noted the importance of the development of international tourism project "The Great Tea Road" and supported the launch of a tourist train on this route.

The "Great Tea Road", designed to increase the attractiveness of Russia for foreign tourists, mainly focused on Chinese citizens. Chinese tourists are very inquisitive, mobile and take the world number one position. Great Tea Road is to our countries of particular value because the Russian-Chinese trade and economic relations started there, existed for centuries, and we have to develop it.

In the future, the authors plan  to extend the route to Krasnoyarsk or Novosibirsk. In addition, in plans to run a train in the winter.

Regular tourist train from China "Great Tea Road" is scheduled to start in summer 2016.