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Product Description
Book Description
The Ancient Tea Horse Road winds its way through some of the most unforgiving terrain on earth. Over seven gruelling months, Canadian Jeff Fuchs took on the challenge of following traditional muleteers along this twelve-hundred-year-old route. Documenting his travels in rich and eloquent detail, with stunning photography, Fuchs brings to life a path that has been an escape route, trade highway, and an adventure destination, battling frostbite, snow blindness, and hunger along the way.
About the Author
Jeff Fuchs has lived for the past five years in Asia, writing about indigenous mountain peoples and Asian traditions. His work has appeared in World Geographic, China Post, and OutPost Magazine.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent read: adventure, memoir, and cultural study all in one,
By
This review is from: Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers (Hardcover)
"The Ancient Tea Horse Road" is an excellent read for people who love adventure trekking, written memoirs, cultural studies, and tea. Jeff Fuchs, the author, lives in China, so he knows the people and the territory well. The treks he writes about were all organized by himself, and he was the only westerner involved. The other participants where his Chinese and Tibetan friends and acquaintances, and their friends and relatives. Mostly nomads and mountain people.
Jeff is a tea fanatic, and the book is flush with tea lore. It's an excellent primer for people interested in "authentic" Asian tea, as well as for those already well versed. Probably my favorite thing about the book is the casual, yet impassioned way he writes about the people involved in his treks, and the old mountain people he meets along the way. This book is as much about culture and anthropology as it is about mountains and valleys. Fuchs is clearly no interloper; not the kind of person who pays a big fee and gets lead around for a while and then flies home. No, he organized and lead the treks, and his concerns were to leave a small footprint, while meeting and interviewing the last of the old timers who used to travel the route as traders. There is a rich cultural history there, and it is dying out quickly. This book is about Fuch's quest to capture some of that history before it is gone, as well as to travel some rough roads and to drink an awful lot of tea.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gripping True Story, Well Told,
By Mary Lou Heiss "www.teatrekker.com" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers (Hardcover)
I read this book in one day on a long flight - no, I should say I inhaled this book because I enjoyed it so much. Indeed, the irony was not lost on me that here I was in various airports, flying about in streamline aircraft while reading about one of oldest and most dangerous Muleteer and Mule tea trading routes in southern China.
I am in the tea business and have been to Yunnan, to some of the tea mountains described in this book. But certainly, very few people, other than the men who made their living plying tea and other trade goods back and forth across the Himalaya to Tibet over this hazardous, unforgiving narrow road of rock and stone, have ventured where this author went. Jeff Fuchs has done a remarkable job of bringing the reader into the region, the mountains, the remote wind-swept villages and the meager homes of some of the last living Muleteers to record their words and experiences. These are the places that can give even seasoned travelers nightmares. He weaves a well-constructed story that includes details relevant to a deeper understanding of the history of this place and the lives of those once involved in the Tea Horse Road: some Chinese history, some Chinese tea history, and much about the importance of the Pu-erh tea itself as a trade commodity between Yunnan and Tibet. As the story unfolded, I realized that this is the kind of story that amazes and educates us about the lives of people in far-off places. I particularly liked and appreciated that he spend quite a bit of time interviewing the old men who were former Muleteers, and that he chronicles how important the tea was then, and still is now, to those who live in remote Himalaya mountain villages. There is a thread of melancholy, saddness, tenderness and pride at a life well lived that comes through some of the different voices that appear in the book. As a reader, I gained an understand and great respect for those who willingly embraced this rugged, unforgiving lifestyle and why they did it. How strange it must be for them to see all of their sacrifices and the Tea Horse Route itself disappear as paved roads replace the need for brave men and sturdy mules to carry goods back and forth. I particularly like a sentence that appears on page 29. The author begins a new paragraph with the words: " Tea in the mountain villages had never been taken for granted partly because of the long journeys required to bring it there." This level of humble appreciation for a simple leaf is much of what this book is about, and what makes this story so powerful. 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read for adventure, memoir, and tea lovers,
By Ed Hawco - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers (Hardcover)
"The Ancient Tea Horse Road" is an excellent read for people who love adventure trekking, written memoirs, cultural studies, and tea. Jeff Fuchs, the author, lives in China, so he knows the people and the territory well. The treks he writes about were all organized by himself, and he was the only westerner involved. The other participants where his Chinese and Tibetan friends and acquaintances, and their friends and relatives. Mostly nomads and mountain people.
Jeff is a tea fanatic, and the book is flush with tea lore. It's an excellent primer for people interested in "authentic" Asian tea, as well as for those already well versed. Probably my favorite thing about the book is the casual, yet impassioned way he writes about the people involved in his treks, and the old mountain people he meets along the way. This book is as much about culture and anthropology as it is about mountains and valleys. Fuchs is clearly no interloper; not the kind of person who pays a big fee and gets lead around for a while and then flies home. No, he organized and lead the treks, and his concerns were to leave a small footprint, while meeting and interviewing the last of the old timers who used to travel the route as traders. There is a rich cultural history there, and it is dying out quickly. This book is about Fuch's quest to capture some of that history before it is gone, as well as to travel some rough roads and to drink an awful lot of tea. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real-life thriller. One of the best books I have ever read...,
By Pierce - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers (Hardcover)
Note 3: I see that Amazon US has now reduced the price to $28, which is still a stretch for a $35 Canadian price, but it is low enough I will begin sending out copies as gifts. I am also trying to get Fuchs nominated for the Roy Chapman Andrews award.
Note 2: I complained about the pricing and was immediately issued a partial refund. Wow! Great job Amazon US. The accompanying note from them says they are re-evaluating the current price. Note: This is a wonderful book. It was published in Canada and Amazon is charging the Canadian price and so over-charging American buyers. Amazon Canada is selling the book for $21 Canadian. Read this book, please, but save yourself some money. Now back to our regularly scheduled review: Author Jeff Fuchs brings life to this gripping tale of a small group of men who decide to retrace the ancient tea horse road, the road that brought tea to Beijing and to Tibet, and brought horses to China. These roads were long and often perilous passing through every landscape and environment imaginable when mules were the best way to deliver goods. Fuchs, adventurer, writer, and photographer, wields a deft pen in recounting this story. The reader comes to know Fuchs and his fellow trekkers and also to know and appreciate the people who live along these ancient roads and who might be the last standard bearers of an age that is rapidly disappearing. Anyone interested in tea, China, Tibet, adventure, and multi-cultural humanity will love this book. Highly recommended. The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels With the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers |
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