The circumstance of the “Ten Thousand Miles of TeaPath” (Henan Section) which used to connect China and foreign countriesin the period of Ming and Qing Dynastyhas been mainly understood by the cultural relics sector of Henanprovince, which lays the foundation for further research and protection of “TenThousand Miles of Tea Path”.

“Ten Thousand Miles of Tea Path” was the tea traderoute which connected China and foreign countries used by Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasty.Tea was transported by water in Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei afterplantation, picking and processing. Then it turned to be transported by landafter entering into Henan province. It went straightly across Shaanxi, Hebeiand Inner Mongolia till the borderline. As the land and water transportation hub,Henan province became the distribution center of tea trade.

In recent years,the cultural relics sector of Henan province has paid much attention to theresearch and investigation on “Ten Thousand Miles of Tea Path” and has mainly figuredout the transport routeof tea trade as well as the quantity and type of its related cultural relics inHenan province.

The prosperity of “Ten Thousand Miles of Tea Path” (Henansector) had brought about the prosperity of culture, thus leaving a lot of culturalrelics behind. There are ancient cities and towns, guild halls,ancient pier ferries, ancient bridges, ancient administrative buildings,ancient shops, ancient temples, ancient blocks, ancient dwellings and ancientstrategic passes, all of which are significant parts of “Tea Path”, serving as physicalinformation and historical evidence of economic and social development.

It is reported that the cultural relics sector ofHenan province will summarize and collate the survey dataand publish the research findings as soon as possible.

Date:2014.1.2  

Source：Xinhua Net