Friday, September 05, 2008

Pu-erh, stockade by the bay and the people live in


Pu erh is a category of tea to tea drinkers whom are familiar with it or even obsess over it. What does it mean? Is it Chinese?

Pu erh is also the name of a town which functioned as a tea hub for pu erh tea trading since Ming dynasty. The center of the Tea Horse Ancient Road, collecting tea from other regions of Yunnan and distributing them outside of the Chinese border, and then some inside of China. Pu Erh region also produce tea despite its fame as a giant tea trading post. During Qing dynasty, Si Mao, Yiwu, Xi Shuang Ban Na and 6 famous mountains were part of Pu Erh county, employing over 20 thousand workers in the tea industry. The main reason for its location importance other than tea trading was salt mining in the town of Mo Hei in Pu Erh county. Salt and tea are 2 out of 7 essentials of Chinese everyday life. Wood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea. The name Pu Erh has been used continuously for thousands years for the same general region with the boundaries changed numerous times in numerous ways.

Pu erh is a tribal language of the Ha Ni tribe. Pu meaning stockade, Erh meaning bay, Pu erh together meaning stockade by the bay. In ancient times, it's referred to the people of Pu Erh, including Bu Lang tribe, Yi tribe, De Ang tribe and others, most of which were our earliest tea cultivating ancestors.

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