Date: 10 November 2015-14 February 2016

Venue: Yunnan Provincial Museum, Kunming

Launched by the Chinese Museums Association, the event is sponsored by the Kunming-based Yunnan Provincial Museum, and joined by seven provincial (regional) museums of Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai. 

The gilded saddle from Gansu Provincial Museum

Witnessing the history of the Tea Road, the exhibition which is the largest-scale exhibition tour of its kind in China displays the charming heritages of the Tea Road (also called the ancient tea-horse road). 

The tri-colored glazed pottery from Shaanxi Provincial Museum

Backgrounded with the ancient transport in Southwest China and the development of the Tea Road, the exhibition displays the different culture zones on the routes the Tea Road covers including the Yunnan-Tibet Route, Sichuan-Tibet Route, Qinghai-Tibet Route, and Yunnan-Guangxi Route. More than 500 selected artefacts from the eight provinces (regions) are displayed in the 1,850-sq-m hall. 

The Tea Road

Originating from the tea and horse market in the southwest boundary of ancient China, it started in the Tang (618-907) and Song (907-1273) dynasties, flourished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), and reached its heyday in the middle and end of the WWII. 

The Tea Road has played an important role in the international culture and economics exchange between China the rest of the world, extending to Bhutan Nepal, India, West Asia and the coast of the Red Sea in West Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia etc.

The Tea Road and the South Silk Road which is much earlier gave birth to the cultural exchange zones in Southwest China and Northwest China. Plus the Central China culture zone, the prospect of ancient China was formed. 

The Tea Road has connected multiple ethnic groups in an interactive manner in the extensive west part of China, propelling the cultural exchange and amalgamation. Yunnan of China as the origin of tea is expected to reach its globalisation following the Tea Road. (Source: Kunming Travel Websitel)