Tea Smugglers Trail

Dates: July + October
Duration: 18 days
Price Guide : £1600 (Overland)
Availability: Open

This is an adventurous and spectacular horse riding and trekking route following the secret route taken by the early Tibetan tea traders to avoid paying tax to the Chiang Kai-Sheks taxmen. The Tea Horse Road had two main routes stemming from different major points of tea production in Pu'er in Yunnan and Ya'an in Sichuan. Ours is the third secret trail from Yunnan into Tibet traversing through some of the most beautiful and spectacular landscapes to finally end when the secret trail converges with the two mail roads in Batang from where the road continues to Lhasa, Burma and Sikkim.

In September of 2006 Metok explored this new route following in the footsteps of Khampa Tibetan tea traders who beat alternative route across this spectacular and achingly beautiful landscape to escape paying the tea tax to the then Kuomintang government of China.