The peak tourism season saw more vitality in Keli village of Tongxin town in Ning 'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County. This was an important station of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Every weekend, groups of students would come to visit, including a lot of foreign students from countries in Southeast Asia like Laos and Thailand.
As the origin of the Ancient Tea Horse Road, Pu’er had been closely linked with Southeast Asia by this road of thousands years old. At present, more students from neighbouring countries chose to go to universities in Pu’er countries. In Pu’er University alone, Laos students numbered to more then 200. also, more and more graduates chose to be employed in nearby countries.
“Along the ancient Silk Road and Tea Horse Road are different nationalities and cultures trading with and learning from each other.”, said by officials in the Yunnan Global Development and Promotion Conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Ancient Tea Horse Road” became a popular word mentioned frequently by guests and ambassadors to China. For a long time, the road represented the long-standing feeling of people in Yunnan for their hometown. Their impression for the route were stone road with marks of horse hooves, wind and rain bridges lasting for centuries, and saddles being passed down for generations... Since 2007, government in Nakeli started to protect, develop and mend the road to restore the ancient appearance of stations. The government not only took care of tourism infrastructure, but also scenic sights relating to ponds and rivers, matiaoshi (literally horse-leaping stone), ximatai (literally horse-washing place) and exhibition hall of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
The noon was approaching when the hostess of “Rongfa Madian” (literally Rongfa Horse Shop) greeted guests with a big smile on her face. The shop had a history of more than 200 years. Generations of her family members had been delivering goods with horses. Items used for that purpose were still placed in the shop, including stone water vats, oil lamps, equipment to transport goods on horseback, specialized long knife with base, leather bags, bamboo-made bags and so on. She started an agritainment in her yard and the special dishes liked by tourists were used to be served to people delivering goods on the horseback along the road.
Nakeli Village had became more and more popular with the fame of “Ancient Tea Horse Road”. 40% of rural inhabitants there were engaged in tourism and there was a “Nakeli Association of the Station along the Ancient Tea Horse Road”. In the May of 2013, the State Council announced that the Ning’er section of the Ancient Tea Horse Road was listed as the 7th batch of important heritage sites under state protection. And in the same year, Nakeli Village was added to the list of traditional Chinese villages. In 2015, Nakeli was selected to be one of the National Ecological Cultural Village.
Yinnan province had been improving it’s level of opening up and cooperating with neighbouring countries. The pioneering spirit and the culture sharing had been recognized by more people. Local people and government had been exploring and inheriting the history and culture of the road, showing the image of Yunnan and stepping toward a higher level.
Pu’er city’s series of tourism project with the theme of “Ancient Tea Horse Road” was close to being established. In 2014, Pu’er Municipal People’s Government signed a contract with Yunnan Mekong Group to conduct protective development on the site of the starting point of “Ancient Tea Horse Road” which was also the connecting area of Lamei Slope and Tudi Slope at the countryside of Pu’er. A scenic area of national 5A standard would be built here. The group also cooperated with China East Singing and Dancing Troupe to create a large-scale performance project named the “Ancient Tea Horse Road”. There were also supporting facilities like tourism town of the ancient tea and horse city as well as tea and horse fair. All of them aimed to explore and show the culture of the road.
“The cultural brand of the Ancient Tea Horse Road is a scarce resource and has unique historical value. We can attract tourists if we can make good use of it’s culture and the stories of people making living through delivering goods on horse back.”, said Bao Jianbin, general manager of Yunnan Mekong Group, with confidence. He was positive about the development potential and space of the cultural resource of the road. As a result, the group aimed high and invested a lot of financial resource into the project. Bao hoped that through the scenic area, more people would learn that people in Yunnan had wish and action of going out thousands of years before, so more young people would be inspired to ponder over the issue of how to introduce such a wonderful place as Yunnan and it’s amazing products to the entire country and the world.