The tea caravan of 99 horses from Yunnan Province finally arrived at Guangzhou on July 27. They started 4 month ago from Yiwu Town, Yunan Province, the No.1 town of Chinese tea, with full load of Pu'er tea, and now they arrived the tea market in Guangzhou, after a 12,000-km journey. 

Chinanews, Beijing, August 21 -- Pu'er tea from Yunnan Province was selected as a tribute to the royal families more than 300 years ago, which marked the beginning of the prime of tea caravans. It usually took a caravan more than 6 months to reach Beijing from Yunnan; however, the tea would continue its fermentation during the long journey, and the changing climate on the way only added to the flavor of the tea, too.

Horse caravans have gradually sunk into oblivion since the faster cars and trucks took their place, but in April 2006, a modern horse tea caravan started their journey from Yiwu County, Yunnan Province in commemoration of tea caravans of the past.

This modern caravan is formed of 99 horses, each carrying 30 kilos of tea (though they look quite stout, they are very dependable), and more than 50 people, making a very big caravan. They plan to travel about 6,000 km in 8 months to Beijing.

After reaching Beijing, all the tea will be sold in an auction, and the money will be donated to the China Health Assist-Poverty Project.

Most people in the caravan are of the Hani, Yi, and Dai ethnic groups, the real successors of the caravan culture. Many of them have never been to a metropolis like Beijing before, thus they set out on their journey with mixed feelings of curiosity and longing.
 
(Chinanews.cn August 22, 2006)