TEA AND " TEA- YIELDING " PLANTS 95 



such fearfully mountainous roads. The average load consists 

 of 10 pao of 18 catties each. But loads of 12 and 13 pao are 

 very common, and on several occasions I have seen men 

 carrying 20 pao. These, however, only weighed 14 catties 

 each, but even then the total weight of the load was 370 

 English pounds ! 



The distance between Yachou and Tachienlu is about 

 140 miles (probably less), and the journey for coolies laden 

 with tea occupies 20 days. Although the work is so inhuman, 

 thousands of men and boys are engaged in this traffic. With 

 their huge loads they are forced to rest every hundred yards or 

 so, and as it would be impossible for the carrier to raise his 

 burden if it were once deposited on the ground he carries a 

 short crutch, with which he supports it when resting, without 

 releasing himself from the slings. 



For each pao carried from Yachou to Tachienlu the carrier 

 receives 400 cash (about a shilling in English money). Out of 

 this he has to keep himself and pay for his lodgings. Never- 

 theless, the pay is really good for the country, and it is this 

 extra remuneration that tempts so many to engage in this 

 work. 



It is very difficult to obtain accurate information as to the 

 extent of this transfrontier tea-trade, but statistics culled from 

 various, more or less reliable, sources, show that at the lowest 

 estimate some 5400 tons of brick tea worth approximately 

 £150,000 enter Tachienlu annually. 



Tea for the Sungpan market is grown in two distinct 

 localities, in the west and north-north-west of the Chengtu 

 Plain respectively. Each district has its own peculiar mode 

 of packing the product. In the west it is grown in the 

 mountains bordering the banks of the Min River in the district 

 of Kuan Hsien. A centre of the industry is the market 

 village of Shui-mo-kou, some 90 li beyond the city of Kuan 

 Hsien itself. This tea is not pressed into bricks after the 

 manner of that for the Tachienlu market, but is made into 

 rectangular bales some 2^ feet by 2^ feet by i foot each, 

 weighing 120 catties (160 English pounds), and covered with 

 bamboo-matting. A considerable quantity of this tea finds a 

 market among the Chiarung tribes, the distributing centres 



