Caravan memories kept in Lijiang relics

Today’s Lijiang old town in northwest Yunnan used to be a key stop on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road connecting southwest China with the neighboring south and southeast Asian countries.

Caravans on the ancient trading route have long been out of sight, but the Tongxinfu museum in Lijiang still keeps objects and memories about the caravan.

The museum owner is 52-year-old Gu Ronggui, who was member of the Tongxinfu caravan in his prime days. With a business tradition for generations, the caravan used to be a major link between Yunnan and Tibet.

To open the museum, Gu travelled to diverse places for ropes, harness, saddles and more relevant to Tongxinfu, collecting 1,000 plus articles in the past three decades. The museum was opened in November 2021.

"The relics are full of memories of my caravan days, especially the teenage days when I worked on the ancient trading route with the most zest,” said Gu Ronggui.

Gu recalled that the Tongxinfu caravan reached as far as Nepal and India, transporting tea mostly. Now making baked tea is still his favorite pastime.

Source: Xinhua; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue