古道散茶香

China is one of the biggest tea production（生產） countries in the world. Tea has a long history in China. In old stories， Shennong（神農） was good at farming. One day， he was boiling（煮） water outdoors. Some leaves fell into the water. The water turned yellow. Shennong drank it. He found that the water tastes better with leaves.

An ancient（古老的） road makes tea popular around China. It is the Ancient Tea Route（茶馬古道）. There are two main roads. One begins in Sichuan province（?。? The other begins in Yunnan province. Each one ends in Tibet（西藏）.

Tibetans（藏民） have a tea history of about 1，000 years. The weather in Tibet is dry and cold. Tibetans need to eat a lot and keep warm. Tea can help digest（消化） the fat. But tea trees can’t grow here. They sell their horses for tea in other parts of China.

Pu-erh tea（普洱茶） grows in Yunnan. In the past， horses carried bags of tea from Yunnan to Tibet. The trip took more than two months.

In Sichuan， the road is very difficult for horses. So only people can carry bags of tea. Each young worker carries 15 bags of tea. Each bag weighs（重）10 kg.