Ran across this article on Tea Talk stating that a new section of the ancient Tea & Horse road has been found. At least I think that's what it said. I tried to access the news source, but I can't read Chinese, so I'm SOL. A quick search on the net turned up lots of stuff about the Tea & Horse Road, but nothing recent about a leg rediscovered.
This is a fascinating bit of history. According to The Silk Road Foundation:
"Few people have realized how vast and unprecedented this sudden expansion of caravan traffic between India and China was, or how important. It was a unique and spec-tacular phenomenon. No complete story has yet been written about it, but it will always live in my memory as one of the great adventures of mankind. Moreover, it demonstrated to the world very convincingly that, should all modern means of com-munication and transpor-tation be destroyed by some atomic cataclysm, the humble horse, man’s oldest friend, is ever ready to forge again a link between scattered peoples and nations" [Goullart 1955: 88].
Some of the towns and villages along the road have been listed among the most important international sites for historic preservation. And apparently quite a few tourists are drawn to travel the Tea & Horse Caravan each year. Looks like a mighty long trek. All the way from Southern China to India? Maybe they're just visiting portions with key villages.
I found a coupla sites offering guided tours. This one has one called "25 day TEA HORSE ROAD EXPEDITION", and it's got a warning on it: "This is a long and winding journey on challenging and dangerous unpaved roads". I don't mind challenging roads. As long as I can stop for a cuppa tea along the way. This one's definitely going on my travel itinerary.
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