The ancient Tea Horse trading of yesteryear could today be called the Caterpillar, Red Bull & Budweiser trade.

Tea portering ended when Mao came to power in 1949. The peasants loved Mao as he redistributed  the land and each got a parcel   The long treacherous  3 month route of carrying tea up to Tibet, returning with the small Tibetan Nangchen horses at only 4.5 ' high was no longer needed to maintain a home . The peasants could live off their own parcel of land. 

History shows that in  the 13th Century China  was trading millions of  pounds of tea for 25,000 horses a year.  The more tea the porters carried the more they got paid. 

The Tea Porters Lament
Seven steps up you have to rest,
Eight steps down you have to rest,
Eleven steps flat you have to rest,
You are stupid, if you don't rest. 

The black baked tea pots of Zhongdian ( Shangri-la)

 Compacted puer tea in it's purest form. I brought this home with me but it is such a beautifully packed cake of tea leaves I cannot bring myself to break into it. 

Today when visiting the area I'm told  the Yartsa Gompo caterpillar, called Chong cao in China , has replaced the horse. This caterpillar only lives above 10,000 ft above sea level and is sold within China as the cure all for the ravages of aging at a cost of $80 per gram and rather than drink tea there are plenty of cans of Red Bull and Budweiser. Maybe I should say, as well as drinking tea there are many signs of the love of Red Bull and Budweiser.