China overtakes France as the world’s second-largest wine-growing region

Grapes at the Xin Jiang vineyard. Image by palindrome6996 / CC BY 2.0

China has overtaken France in the amount of vineyard land it cultivates. With 799,000 hectares of vineyards across the country, China is now second to Spain, which cultivates 1.02 million hectares of vineyards. China also recently became the world’s largest wine market, guzzling more than 155 million cases of vino in 2013. Wine is increasingly seen as a status symbol in China. Red wine is especially popular, as red is an auspicious colour in Chinese culture. Read more: shanghaiist.com