Ya'an

Ya'an in western Sichuan is the historical centre of China's "border tea" trade with Tibet. A government office set up in 1047 during the Song dynasty to manage the tea-horse trade survived in Mingshan (one of Ya'an's eight counties); roughly 7,500 tons of tea went each year from Sichuan to the Tibetan plateau, mostly via Ya'an. The region's signature is Kangzhuan brick tea (康砖), a Hei Cha historically used as currency on the Tea Horse Road.