The people of Liubao, Lion Village, and Xiaying have always had close ties, with active Tea trade and transportation between them. As a result, two auxiliary routes emerged on the ancient tea boat route map.

During mid-summer, the heat is oppressive. The streets of Xiaying Town, located by the Guijiang River, are very quiet, with only a few passersby hurrying through.

Liu Yanzhong served as the director of the Xiaying Supply and Marketing Cooperative in the 1970s. He said, “The cooperative purchased tens of thousands of catties of tea from the locals each year, mostly carried over mountains by the Liubao tea farmers…”

Standing by the window, the old man watches the pedestrians on the street, slowly recalling the history of tea collection. The trajectory of the auxiliary route of the ancient tea boat route that passed through Xiaying unfolds from his words…

The mountains of Lion Village

The hardships seen at Fanbao Slope

Xiaying Town, now under the jurisdiction of Wuzhou City's Wanxiu District, borders the south of Wuzhou City and the north of Liubao Town in Cangwu County. It was historically part of Duoxian Township.

According to the “Annals of Wuzhou Prefecture,” since the Qing dynasty, Cangwu County has been divided by the Xijiang River, with six townships established north of the river, including Duoxian Township, which comprised the First to Sixth Forts. According to the “Draft Guangxi Gazetteer,” “Liubao tea is produced in Cangwu, and the most abundant tea production in Cangwu occurs in the Sixth and Fifth Forts of Duoxian Township.” The Sixth Fort mentioned here refers to the current Liubao Town in Cangwu County, while the Fifth Fort, separated by a mountain, is today's Lion Village in Cangwu County.

Due to their shared governance under Duoxian Township until 1957 and the historical administrative center being located in Xiaying Town, the people of Liubao, Lion Village, and Xiaying have always maintained close ties. Goods from surrounding villages would gather for trade in Xiaying Town, making the tea trade and transportation equally active in the area bordering Liubao and Xiaying. Over time, an auxiliary route formed on the ancient tea boat route map, extending from Liubao through Xiaying, along the Siliang River to Danjiawan, then down the Guijiang River to Wuzhou, and finally along the Xijiang River to the Pearl River Delta region.

In October 1947, a farmer in the Wuzhou region carries goods to the market in a cloth bag

In the Liubao tea area, many older tea farmers, and even their ancestors, have carried tea to sell in Xiaying and then bought various daily necessities nearby before returning home.

Luo Guangzheng worked at the Xiaying Supply and Marketing Cooperative and vividly recalls the images of Liubao tea farmers carrying tea to sell in Xiaying before the founding of the People's Republic of China. He said, “On market days, you could see many Liubao tea farmers carrying tea to sell in Xiaying Town, with up to a hundred people on some days.”

The mountain path between Liubao and Xiaying is dozens of kilometers long, with many mountains to cross. The hardships faced by tea farmers carrying tea through these mountains are unimaginable. “In our youth, we often carried tea from Siliu Village to Xiaying for the market. Because the journey was so long, we would usually set out early in the morning, stay overnight after selling the tea in Xiaying, and then return the next day,” says Yi Liangcheng, a tea farmer from Liubao Town. Every time they went to Xiaying, the Liubao tea farmers would bring wrapped tapioca balls to eat during breaks along the way. This resting spot, located at the boundary of Liubao and Xiaying, became known as Fanbao Slope.

After large quantities of Liubao tea were transported to Xiaying, they were loaded onto temporary docks by the town during the flood season. During dry seasons, however, they had to be manually carried to Danjiawan for loading onto boats and then transported down the Guijiang River to Wuzhou. Liu Yanzhong said, “The waterway from the Guijiang River to Wuzhou is more than 20 kilometers long. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were only two wooden boats operating this route, owned by ‘A Si' and ‘A Liu'.”

A rural market in Wuzhou in 1949

On the other hand, due to the presence of large ships, many tea merchants preferred to travel up the Guijiang River from Wuzhou to reach Xiaying or Lion Village, then proceed on foot or horseback into Liubao. To facilitate tea purchases, they often set up acquisition points at the docks in Xiaying or Lion Village. Deng Bingjian, a descendant of a tea family, mentioned that his father operated Yingji Tea Shop in the 1920s and 1930s and had acquisition points in both Xiaying and Lion Village to purchase tea nearby.

Running Between Liubao and Lion Village

Lion Village has always been an important tea-producing area in Cangwu County. Here, the mountains are high and densely forested, with a good ecological environment and widespread tea trees. Today, many wild old tea trees still grow on Rongding Mountain, which reaches an altitude of over one thousand meters.

However, the road leading to the tea-producing areas of Lion Village has always been difficult to traverse. Even today, although cement roads have been built in the mountains, the winding roads remain challenging. The straight-line distance from Lion Village Town to Dachang Village and Yongsheng Village is only about ten kilometers, but driving an off-road vehicle to Dachang Village takes more than fifty minutes, and getting to Yongsheng Village takes over an hour. Drivers must carefully navigate the changing road conditions without any room for carelessness.

Although Dachang Village and Yongsheng Village are under the jurisdiction of Lion Village Town, both villages border Liubao Town. Walking from these villages to Lion Village Town and Liubao Town requires three hours and four hours, respectively. Many older tea farmers from Dachang Village and Yongsheng Village have carried tea to sell in Liubao and Lion Village Town.

Liao Guilan, a resident of Dachang Village's Dutian Group, was born in 1912. Although she can no longer speak due to her advanced age, she remains in good health. According to her children and other elders in the village, when she was young, Liao Guilan not only frequently sold the tea grown at home but also occasionally helped tea shop owners in Liubao carry tea to Lion Village.

Liao Guilan (center) and her descendants

Many Liubao tea farmers also sold their tea in Lion Village themselves. Tan Lixiong, a tea farmer from Siliu Village in Liubao Town, often carried tea to sell in Lion Village when he was young, and his ancestors were also engaged in this laborious task.

The factors determining where tea farmers sold their tea included the distance and the purchase price, making the tea trade between Liubao and Lion Village very active. The “Work Report of the Provincial Tea Improvement Working Group” written in 1952 by the working group dispatched by the Guangxi provincial government (Note: The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was established in 1958) to the Liubao tea-producing areas recorded, “After liberation and up to 1951, tea production gradually increased… Approximately 500,000 catties were exported from Liubao and about 350,000 catties from Lion Village… The tea farmers generally carried their tea on their shoulders. Currently, only Hekou Market in Liubao is a concentration point