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hence the Tea Horse Road. The trade routes were active until
the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War, when they were
repurposed to include moving troops and medical supplies. By
the time World War II ended and the civil war began, using the
Tea Horse Road to transport tea had become obsolete.
“Tea reminds us to slow down and escape the pressures of
modern life,” Tea Master Chen expounds as we walk through the
exhibits. “It allows the newly wealthy to escape the poverty of
the past and the poor to appreciate the finer things in life. Our
citizens can be wary of what the government might do, so tea
is also a safe way to invest our money. I consider Pu’erh to be a
drinkable antique. Tea is alive, and every sip, through the pow-
erful senses of taste and smell, opens our hearts to remember
family, love, and hardships overcome.” While these sentiments
may be particularly true for the Chinese, people in other cultures
also see in tea an opportunity for respite, comfort, and tranquility.
A^
COUPLE OF DAYS LATER, Mr. Li drives us to Nannuo
Mountain. Chen Xin, the proprietor of the Fujin Ji
guesthouse, welcomes us with a tea tasting. The
lodging is rustic, but the compound is tidy, and
the views are magnificent. Chen Xin’s daughter
and a friend make dinner using ingredients mostly grown on
the property: snow pea and fish soup, pork with mint, fresh
bamboo shoots, sautéed green beans with chilies, and scrambled
eggs with tomatoes. After dinner, under the flickering light of
oil lamps, Chen Xin leads a sing-along for his guests, featuring
popular Chinese songs as well as Akha and other ethnic minority
love songs.
One of our prearranged meetings here is at the home of Ahtu,
who’s the patriarch of an Akha family well-known for the quality
of tea they grow. (The Akha don’t have surnames. Instead, the
last syllable of the father’s name becomes the first syllable of the