Chengdu, November 22th

We begin our journey in Chengdu, the vibrant capital of Sichuan and the heart of Chinese gourmet culture. According to each guest’s arrival time, we provide a warm welcome and comfortable transfer to the hotel, allowing space to rest and settle in after the journey.

Around midday or early afternoon, we gather for a relaxed lunch featuring seasonal Sichuan dishes—fragrant, balanced, and full of character. Later, we share our first tea together in a peaceful teahouse, where the rhythm of Chengdu gently invites us into the journey ahead. It’s the perfect setting to introduce one another and begin unfolding the stories of the leaves we will encounter.

Gallery: Sichuan

Chengdu, November 23rd

Our second day in Chengdu is dedicated to two of its greatest pleasures: food and tea. We begin in People’s Park, where locals gather in one of the city’s oldest teahouse traditions. Set beneath bamboo and old trees, these lively spaces offer a slow rhythm— tea is poured from long-spouted kettles as people play mahjong, chat, or simply watch the day pass. It’s a living ritual at the heart of Chengdu life

In the afternoon, we visit the panda base to watch Chengdu's most beloved residents at their most relaxed—a lighter, playful counterpoint to the morning, and a fitting close to the day.

Gallery: Sichuan

Chengdu to Ya'an, Mengding mtn., November 24th

We leave Chengdu by road, crossing hills and valleys toward Ya'an. The landscape shifts as we go—tea terraces give way to forested slopes as we near the Himalayan foothills, a first glimpse into Sichuan's tea-growing heartland.

In the afternoon we climb Mengding Mountain, traditionally regarded as the site of the world's first deliberately cultivated tea garden, where mother tea trees said to be centuries old still stand. Our walk around the peak is a quiet homage to these origins, passing temples nestled into the slopes—places that have watched over tea harvests and seasons for generations, and once supplied tribute tea to the imperial court.

Gallery: Sichuan

Ya'an to Yingjing, November 25th

We drive from Ya'an to Yingjing, home to the Tea Horse Road Museum, where we trace the history of the ancient trade route that once carried compressed tea cakes from these mountains into Tibet, and horses, wool and salt back the other way.

We also visit a tea collector we've known for years—what began as a personal archive of aged, sealed teas built over seventy years has since grown into an established trading operation, though the same passion for preservation still runs through it. It's a rare chance to taste deeply into Tibetan tea's heritage, seal by seal, vintage by vintage.

In the afternoon, we taste zangcha, the dark tea pressed and aged specifically for that trade, and visit a black pottery workshop and kiln—Yingjing's other historic craft, and one closely tied to the tea that travelled this same road.

Gallery: Sichuan

Yingjing to Chengdu, November 26th

We journey back toward Chengdu, watching the scenery unfold as we descend from the misty foothills into the wide Sichuan plains. Tea mountains give way gradually to the rhythm and sprawl of the city.

In the afternoon, depending on the group's preference and the weather, we either visit Wuhou Temple, resting place and shrine of the Three Kingdoms-era statesman Zhuge Liang and one of Chengdu's most storied sites, or head out to Mount Emei, one of China's sacred Buddhist peaks. Either way, it's a chance to place this tea journey within the wider layers of Sichuan's history.

Gallery: Sichuan

Chengdu to Kunming, November 27th

In the morning we leave Chengdu and take the train to Kunming, Yunnan's capital. As we cross from the fertile Sichuan Basin into the highlands of Southwest China, the landscape shifts again—rising altitudes, brighter skies, and the cooler, gentler air of the "Spring City" welcome us into a new chapter of the journey.

Once settled in, we take the afternoon slowly, walking the streets around Green Lake and letting Kunming's own tea and street culture set the pace—a first taste of the Yunnan rhythm that will carry us through the rest of the trip.

Gallery: Kunming

Kunming to Dali, November 28th

We spend the morning at a renowned incense school, home to an extraordinary private collection of agarwood from across Asia, along with rare woods and natural raw materials used in traditional incense making. Through guided sessions, we explore the theory, history, and health-preserving practice of incense—from its spiritual and medicinal roots to the refined aesthetics of blending and heating.

In the afternoon we travel to Dali, arriving by evening at its old town, where the fragrances of the morning give way to the calm of Erhai Lake and our first taste of the Nanzhao kingdom's long tea history.

Gallery: Kunming / Dali

Dali to Shaxi, November 29th

We spend the morning in Dali, walking among its old courtyard houses and quiet lanes before departing—a last, unhurried look at the city before we return to the road.

In the early afternoon we drive into the highlands to the ancient trading post of Shaxi, a perfectly preserved jewel of the Tea Horse Road and, for many, its living fossil. Our exploration centres on Sideng Square, the historic heart of the town, where we find the 700-year-old Ancient Theatre and the Xingjiao Temple with its exquisitely preserved friezes. A short walk leads us to the iconic Yujin Bridge, a stone arch crossed for centuries by the caravans of the Tea Horse Road.

We settle into the unique atmosphere and traditional Bai architecture of wood and rammed earth that make Shaxi the best-preserved station on the entire ancient route, tasting teas that carry something of this history in their cup.

Gallery: Dali / Shaxi

Shaxi to Xishuangbanna, November 30th

We depart Shaxi in the morning, driving back to Dali before flying south to Xishuangbanna—the thousand-year-old capital of the Dai kingdom, where Dai minority culture is still lively and present today.

After checking in, we enjoy a quiet lunch before dedicating the afternoon to exploring the region's unique teas. Xishuangbanna is the cradle of pu'er, home to towering ancient trees, flourishing small gardens, and plantations producing rare aged white teas. It is also, in its own right, an origin point of the very road we have been following since Sichuan—tea grown wild in these forests once began the long climb north toward Tibet. We taste ancient-tree pu'er alongside our own leaves, a first proper immersion into the terroir we'll spend the rest of the journey exploring.

Gallery: Xishuangbanna

Nannuo mtn., December 1st

Nannuo mountain has a thousand-year history with tea, and due to its wilder past has an incomparable richness of tea forests: our travel into pu'er starts from here, walking to pay homage to the oldest 800-year-old tree, considered the king of Nannuo mountain, and whose location and story are so meaningful for our journey along this stretch of the old Tea Horse Road, west of the Lancang river.

After a typical Hani culture lunch in the mountain, with locally grown raw material, herbs, and spices, we settle at the tea table for an afternoon of gongfucha, refining our technique to serve each tea at its best.

Gallery: Nannuo mountain

Menghai, December 2nd

Menghai is the centre of the most renowned—and busiest—area for the production of pu'er tea, an old trading town on the Tea Horse Road surrounded by the mountains of Bulang, Pasha, Nannuo, and Naka, bringing together the best professionals and factories of the region.

We visit a traditional workshop and try our hand at stone-mill cake pressing, shaping our own tea by hand exactly as it was done for caravans heading toward Sichuan and Tibet, before a dedicated pu'er tasting session.

Gallery: Menghai

Yiwu mtn., December 3rd

We travel from Jinghong to Yiwu Old Street, historically regarded as the starting point of the Tea Horse Road—home to a diverse range of tastes, landscapes, and producers, and once favoured tribute tea of the imperial court.

We walk among the most historically significant homes and lanes, the square where pu'er tea was loaded and traded for generations, and the local museum, which stands at the first stop of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. It is a fitting mirror to where this journey began: if Mengding gave tea its first garden, Yiwu gave it its first road out into the world.

Gallery: Yiwu