Tea Horse route to get world heritage status?
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2007
1
621
632
Trip End
Dec 31, 2011
Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Nope, I can't, because I am already living in a WHS area, I think.
But now can you get WHS for a route? And if you do, will there be an entry fee? A toll gate?
Experts proposed applying for the Ancient Tea and Horse Route, a major
trade route in ancient China's Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, for its
designation as the world cultural heritage.
"The Ancient Tea
and Horse Route, one of the routes with the highest altitude in the
world promoting civilization and culture, is the precious historical
and cultural heritage of multiple ethnic groups," said Wang Qiong,
director of the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau.
He added that as the route boasts a large amount of cultural heritages, it is essential to protect it effectively.
Tan Jihe, a researcher of the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social
Sciences, said that the application will help arouse the society's
awareness of the ancient route, thus promoting its protection.
The route saw a continual flow of horses transporting goods to foreign
countries in the past and is considered a corridor for economic and
cultural exchanges among the southwestern ethnic groups.
The
route originated from the exchange market on the southwestern border in
ancient times and began to thrive in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and
Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279).
While remaining prosperous in the
Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) and Qing Dynbasty (AD 1644-1911) dynasties,
the route saw the best period of development in the second half of the
Second World War (1939-1945).
The route has two sublines: the
Yunnan-Tibet line runs from the major tea-producing areas in western
Yunnan and to the rear Tibet; and the Sichuan-Tibet line runs from the
tea-producing areas in Sichuan's Ya'an to rear Tibet.
It is
believed that it was through this trading network that tea was spread
across China and to Asia from its origin in Yunnan.
Source: Xinhuanet
