Porter Route: Tianquan to Kangding, Sichuan/Tibet
http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/2003/6/14_7.html
Blazing the tea-horse trail
XIONG LEI, China Daily 06/13/2003
[...]
Few people driving along the paved highway from Ya'an in southwestern Sichuan to Tibet notice a dirt road that forks off near a bridge 4 kilometres from the county seat of Tianquan.
[...]
the dirt road leads to a secluded village called Ganxipo, or Sweet Brook Slope. While today's travellers overlook Ganxipo, many in the past used the village as a stopover on the ancient tea-horse trade route. Heavily ladened porters used to trek
[...]
to and from Kangding in Tibetan inhabited areas. They climbed over the towering Erlang Mountains, gateway to Garze, now a Tibet autonomous prefecture in western Sichuan.
[...]
Li Zhongquan, 81, says he started to carry loads to and from Kangding when he was a teenager.
[...]
"It was 180 kilometres one way from Tianquan to Kangding," Li says. "An able-bodied porter would carry 10 to 12 packs of tea, with each weighing 6 to 9 kilograms. Then you'd carry 7 to 8 kilograms of your own grain and five or six pairs of homemade straw sandals to change on the way. The strongest could carry 15 packs of tea, with a total load of 150 kilograms." The grain lasted no longer than half the journey, says the veteran porter.
[...]
On their way back, the porters would carry medicinal herbs, musk, wool, horn or other special products from Tibet. For such a trip, Li recalls, a porter was paid one silver dollar or 10 kilograms of rice for every pack of tea carried.
[...]
There are over 30 stopovers along the porter route throughout Tianquan County [...]
Please note that the above details were correct on the day this post was published. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com
Blazing the tea-horse trail
XIONG LEI, China Daily 06/13/2003
[...]
Few people driving along the paved highway from Ya'an in southwestern Sichuan to Tibet notice a dirt road that forks off near a bridge 4 kilometres from the county seat of Tianquan.
[...]
the dirt road leads to a secluded village called Ganxipo, or Sweet Brook Slope. While today's travellers overlook Ganxipo, many in the past used the village as a stopover on the ancient tea-horse trade route. Heavily ladened porters used to trek
[...]
to and from Kangding in Tibetan inhabited areas. They climbed over the towering Erlang Mountains, gateway to Garze, now a Tibet autonomous prefecture in western Sichuan.
[...]
Li Zhongquan, 81, says he started to carry loads to and from Kangding when he was a teenager.
[...]
"It was 180 kilometres one way from Tianquan to Kangding," Li says. "An able-bodied porter would carry 10 to 12 packs of tea, with each weighing 6 to 9 kilograms. Then you'd carry 7 to 8 kilograms of your own grain and five or six pairs of homemade straw sandals to change on the way. The strongest could carry 15 packs of tea, with a total load of 150 kilograms." The grain lasted no longer than half the journey, says the veteran porter.
[...]
On their way back, the porters would carry medicinal herbs, musk, wool, horn or other special products from Tibet. For such a trip, Li recalls, a porter was paid one silver dollar or 10 kilograms of rice for every pack of tea carried.
[...]
There are over 30 stopovers along the porter route throughout Tianquan County [...]
Please note that the above details were correct on the day this post was published. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com
posted by tmciolek at 3:28 PM
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