CHINA: The Tea Way - 3 Jiangshui - Chengdu

China — is the homeland of tea. Tea is grown and produced here, it is tasted and drunk, advertised and sold. The production technology and traditional ways of consumption of tea have strongly intertwined with the Chinese mentality and religion. Jiangshui - one of the oldest cities in the southern part of the Yunnan Province. The majority of the buildings that remained until now, was constructed in the 14th-17th centuries. The local Confucian Temple Wen Miao was founded even earlier — some time in the 13th-14th century. At that time, it was the largest Confucian temple of China. Muyeang Huo Kham Chiang Rung or Lu kingdom, was the state of one Thai nationality — the Lu people. The city of Chiang Hung was the capital of this kingdom. It is the present City of Jinhong, the Capital of Sishuanbanna-Dai autonomous region of China. In this region of China, ethnic Chinese never made the majority of the population. Even today, after the reinforced assimilation according to the official population census, it is Thais, the Khans, the Lakhs, Bulanas, Jings, Yaos, Miaos, Bais, Hueyets, Vas, Tchzhunas and other national minorities, who live here. In this locality, lying approximately at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer, there are fertile soils and humid tropical climate, clean rivers and cool mountain air, and impenetrable evergreen forests. It is very warm and very humid here, year around. Ideal conditions for tea cultivation. In the course of searching for medicinal herbs, people incidentally came across tea trees. They tried to chew on tea leaves and felt the healing effect at once. When leaves started to be cooked in boiled water, their action on the body became even stronger. At first, tea was treated as medicine. In the ancient treatise "Shen Lun Benb Shu" or "the Initial Book of the Divine Dragon", it is written: "Tea tastes bitter. When a person drinks it, he/she thinks better, he chooses to sleep less, the body becomes light and vision clears". Not more, than a typical description of some medical syrup. The tea plants on every step of the way. On all, suitable, even at the slightest degree, grounds for tea cultivation. Majority of plantations is not large, but small and even miniature like. They belong to separate families. The technology is primitive. Tea is dried in the barn on a single antediluvian piece of machinery. And still, only the richest tea growers do it. It is mainly the manual labour, that is used here. Leaves are drying directly in the yards. Here, dust flies over them, and dog's hair. They cover the tea only from the top — from rain. It is no surprise, that it the beginning of a tea ceremony, tea leaves are rinsed with boiling hot water. When I looked at the conditions, where the elite kinds of the Chinese tea are made, I would prefer not just to rinse it before the use, but to wash it properly with soap. The complicated web of the roads, horse paths and narrow trails, passing along the strongly rugged mountain district in the western part of the Provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan and also across Tibet, is called "The Ancient Tea and Horse Way". In the 9th century, the borders of the State of Nanzhao were constantly extending. Part of the present Chinese Province of Sichuan, the northern part of Burma and Vietnam, joined its territory. However, already in the next century, the state began to weaken. In 1252, it was captured by the Mongols, under the leadership of Khan Hubilaya. Old Dali, by its appearance, — the typical Chinese medieval city. With a fortification, temples, stone buildings, parks and fountains. Tibetan influence is felt here. The dishes of the Tibetan cuisine have appeared in the restaurants. And original Tibetan tea. Lijiang, that lost its importance as the large trade city on the "tea and horse way", began to gradually turn into a tourist sight. The City of Shangri-La is already in Tibet. It is not on the territory of the Tibetan autonomous area, where the foreigners are permitted only in the presence of a special permission. In 2001, the City of Chzhondian, also known as Tszyaltan, was officially renamed as Shangri-La. One mystical place in James Hilton's novel "Lost horizon", was similarly called. The Emeishan Mount - one of the four most sacred Buddhist mountains of China and the highest of them. Emeishan, in translation from Chinese, means "Beautiful mountains". They always drew the attention of travelers by their beauty. The whole life of Chinese people and their culture are inseparably linked with tea. Within one, even the longest travel, it is only possible to get acquainted with them briefly. To walk a small part of "the Tea Way". We have done exactly this, by having passed through the southern provinces of China from Shanghai to Chengdu in two months.