Heshun Old Town in Tengchong,Baoshan

Heshun Township is 4 kilometers to the west of Tengchong County. To get there, you can fly from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, take a coach to Tengchong, and then the Tengchong-Heshun mini-bus.

History of Heshun
For centuries, Southwest China's Yunnan Province has been known as home of black tea. It was in the Tang Dynasty, (618 - 907), that caravans began to transport bricks of tea from Xishuangbanna and Simao to India, passing through Yunnan's Dali and Lijiang and Tibet. The route became known as the tea-horse trail. By the time it had reached India, the tea fermented and turned black. It was then bought by merchants that took it to Europe and other parts of the world.

Location of Heshun
At the southern end of the Chinese section of the Tea-horse Trail, bordering Myanmar, is Tengchong County, once an important land port in the border areas of Southwest China. Four kilometers from Tengchong is Heshun Township, the birthplace of many well-known Chinese merchants and literati. Streams crisscross the town, its houses have white walls and gray tiles, reminiscent of buildings in the lower Yangtze River area. To the east of the town lies the Hengduan mountain range, which rolls on for hundreds of kilometers, and to the west is Myanmar. Many dormant volcanoes are dotted around the village, and on misty days, their peaks are shrouded in dense cloud.

Feature of Heshun
As many overseas Chinese' ancestors lived in 600-year-old Heshun, almost every resident in the town has friends and relatives abroad. Neighboring Myanmar is famous for its jade, and Heshan has been a trade center for this precious stone since ancient times. Long caravans would come from Sichuan and other parts of Yunnan and pass through Heshun en route to Myanmar and India where they went in search of jade. Business was sometimes risky, as jade was usually bought and sold in an uncut state for between a thousand and a million yuan. It was difficult to determine the quality of uncut jade, so buyers were unsure how much they stood to gain C or lose C until the stone had been carved. Some traders made millions overnight, while others lost everything.

Heshun has always had a large population sharing limited resources. Historical records show that merchants from the Yangtze River Delta came here in search of treasures some 2,400 years ago. During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, still more caravans arrived to ply their trade. They would bring silk, jewelry, new books and sometimes, rare Western commodities to exchange for their beloved jades. Merchants faced a perilous and punishing journey over the steep Hengduan Mountain Ranges, through the Gaoligong valleys and over the fast-flowing Nu River. Old legends abound in Heshun, and almost every resident has a story to tell about jade traders, and how these brave adventurers either survived or perished on their hazardous expeditions.

In those days, many parents in Heshun encouraged their offspring to travel to Myanmar and engage to get in this lucrative trade. Many of them did, leaving their footprints in the mountains and forests of Myanmar, Thailand and India. Some returned with untold riches, while others were never seen again

Venturing abroad to engage in the jade trade was often hard and dangerous work, but for those brave enough to try, it was very rewarding and brought about dramatic changes in their lives. Traders who had made their fortunes overseas opened businesses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and built luxurious family mansions in Heshun equipped with new and exotic commodities that they had brought back to their hometown..

Strolling the streets of Heshun, you can see many museum-like residences. At the back of the Heshun Library is a huge mansion, formerly the Li household, richest family in western Yunnan Province in the mid 19th century. The family started out trading jade, jewelry and other small trinkets between Heshun and Myanmar. Later the Lis expanded their business and, over the course of a century, set up branches in big cities at home and abroad. Some 200 descendents of the Li family are now scattered across the globe. There is now just one elderly relative who stays in Heshun to keep watch over the old family mansion.