File:A naturalist in Western China - with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom; (1913) (14782327422).jpg

Identifier: naturalistinwes02wils (find matches)
Title: A naturalist in Western China : with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Wilson, Ernest Henry, 1876-1930
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London, Methuen
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Sungpan market are less intricate than those describedfor brick tea. The leaves and young branches are gathered,panned, and dried in the sun. The panning process is some-times omitted, and very commonly the bushes and theirovergrowth of coarse weeds are cut together, dried in thesun, and tied into bundles. The leaves are collected intosacks or bales, and with the bundles of leafy sticks carried downto the market villages and sold to tea establishments. Themanufacturers allow the leaves to ferment in heaps for a fewdays, and afterwards submit them to a rough sorting. Thesticks are chopped up with the coarse leaves and steamed overa large pan of boiling water. The moist, heated mass is thenfirmly pressed into bales, covered with matting, and allowedto dry. The tea is practically all of one quality, and very littlesuperior to the most inferior kind entering Tachienlu. Cheap-ness is the main consideration, a bale of 120 catties beingvalued in Sungpan at Tls. 8. This trade is a monopoly in
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TEA AND TEA-YIELDING PLANTS 97 the hands of five establishments, which pay to the provincialgovernment at Chengtu a fixed tax of about i cent, per catty.Payment is done by purchasing permits called Yin piao,which bear the official stamp. Each permit covers a bale of120 catties or two smaller ones, and costs Tls. i20. Whereas at Tachienlu the tea passes directly into thehands of Thibetans, at Sungpan it remains in the hands of thefive tea establishments. These are owned by MohammedanChinese, who, in addition to carrying on a considerable localtrade, have trusted agents travelling all over north-easternThibet bartering tea for furs, wool, musk, medicines, andother Thibetan commodities. The tea-trade of Sungpan is an improving one, but it ispractically impossible to obtain reliable figures of its volume.There are, of course, Chinese Official Returns stating thenumber of Yin piao sold annually, but where officialpeculation is so general such returns are notoriously untrust-worthy. Piecing

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