As its name suggests, the Tea-Horse Road was a central trade route for exchanges during the Han people’s tea and the Tibetan horses.

The road stretched across more than 4,000 km, mainly through southwestern China. It is not only a road for exchanging tea and horses, but also other commodities and even the culture and religion.

In the ancient times, Pu’er tea in Yunnan Province is the most favored tea by the Tibetan people since the butter tea made of Pu’er tea is highly tasteful and looks well. But the tea can’t grow in the extremely cold climate in Tibetan. The local businessmen looked for the suppliers in Yunnan Province. They began to traverse the steep mountains of western China to provide Pu’er tea for the Tibetans. Although Yunnan’s tea is very abundant but it lacked of strong horses that can help them to transport and fight with other tribes. So the traders seized the golden opportunity and focused on the business of exchanging horses and tea, and they made great profit.

Also, the route they always took gradually became the Tea-Horse Road. Here in many places, you can find the trace of that ancient road.