Yándào

Yandao lies in the valley of Yingjing, on a route from the Sichuan Basin towards the mountains of the southwest. The ancient town was a frontier post and trading place on the road towards Yunnan. Later the tea and horse route followed the valley before climbing the Daxiang range towards Hanyuan, carrying tea from Sichuan to communities beyond the mountains. In the disorder at the end of the Ming, official tea and horse exchange weakened. Private merchants increasingly carried tea between Han and Tibetan districts, and tea firms grew along the route. Their buildings and roads marked a trade that continued to bind the valleys to the highlands.