The Market of He-kou-zhen and Tea Trade in Qing Dynasty

Since the 18th Century, tea leaves were one of the popular items of exports from Guangzhou to Europe and the US in Qing Era. One of the major production sites was the south side of Wuyi Shan Mountains, or the foothills in Fujian Province. The tea leaves produced there were transported by land over the mountains from Fujian Province to Jiangxi Province, headed for the provincial capital Nanchang from Hekou-zhen on Qianshan by water transport along Xin?jiang. Then using the water transport going upstream along Gan?jiang running north from Guangdong Province, they were sent to Nanan-fu, current Daiyu, in Jiangxi Province, then went over the mountains again via Meiguan to Nanxiong-zhou, current Nanxiong City, in Guangdong Provinece, and again by water transport reached Guangzhou, loaded into foreign vessels in Guangzhou and exported to other countries. We planned a field work in Hekou-zhen in Qianshan-xian, to investigate the geographic situations and the current status of Hekou-zhen in Jiangxi Procince, one of the cargo-pickup points of the Fujian tea leaves exported from Guangzhou to Europe and the US in Qing Era, and of a part of the transportation route from Wuyi Shan City to Hekou-zhen. We started Wuyi Shan City in Fujian Province by car and visited Hekou-zhen in Jiangxi Province on August 27, 2001. We could study the history and the current status of Hekou-zhen and of the pickup and the transportation by land over the mountains to Hekou-zhen in Qianshan in Jiangxi Province of the Wuyi Shan tea leaves from Fujian Province exported from Guangzhou to Europe and the US in Qing Era. The remainder of the prosperity of Hekou-zhen in Qing Era, especially in Quanlong, Jia-qing, and Daoguang periods, is still seen after more than a hundred years. In Qing Era, the tea leaves produced in Wuyi Shan were transported over the mountains by manpower to Hekou-zhen in Qianshan in Jiangxi Province. The route has become one of the important routes for cargo and passenger transportation from Jiangxi Procvince to get to Fujian Province by the sea