Porters in western China — sometimes including women and children — lugged crushing burdens of tea along trails to Tibet for centuries until trucks replaced them by the mid-1900s.
People were more economical than packhorses.
250 Pounds of Grief, by Paul Salopek for National Geographic, 14 October 2022
Following The Forgotten Trails Of China’s Vanished Tea Porters.
This story is part of journalist Paul Salopek’s multiyear, 24,000-mile walk across the world.
Fanatic Cook 