A Tea Journey

Fig 1. 

The Chinese ancient ‘Tea Horse Road’ depicted the effort they made hundred years ago in the aspect of overcoming extreme climate and natural conditions on the way across Yunnan and Tibet to the Southeast Asia, contributing to an important part of China’s early trading and business history; in addition to being a significant transportation route in the late Qing and during WWII. In recent decades, railways are under construction at the site of this historical road.

Flashing back a bit to the major trading product – tea – which is utilizing the route at the very beginning, actually greatly links to the daily living of the minorities of Western China. It reflects the cultural difference crossing the wider China and the continent.

Using the tea culture, hence the life fighting against the nature of the minorities, as a lens, the thesis aims to explore the transformation of the transportation hence its related architecture they are utilizing, in the national and international stage. The position of train station architecture in the urban realm will be under investigation, as well as the resulting evolution of these villages / cities along the road over the years.

Fig 1. “茶馬古道簡介,” 雲南電視網, accessed Sep 24, 2016, http://culture.yntv.cn/category/20814/2007/09/30/2007-09-30_496708_20814.shtml.

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