A Thousand-Year-Old Town on the Ancient Tea Horse Road

Shaxi is a thousand-year-old town with a long history, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period over 2,400 years ago. After the Tang Dynasty, Shaxi became the salt capital of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. With the excavation of the Nanzhao and Dali grottoes, it became a town that combined commerce and Buddhist culture. As it was on the way from the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms to the Shadengjing and Shizhongshan Grottoes, it became a land port on the ancient road of economic and cultural exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo. Shaxi Ancient Town, located between Dali and Lijiang, was once a land port on the Ancient Tea Horse Road from Yunnan to Tibet. It was an important node on the way to Tibet, an important trading center on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, and a center of Buddhist cultural activities in the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms. Therefore, Shaxi is a town that combines commerce and Buddhist culture, and it was once prominent on the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Shaxi Ancient Town has gone through a process of development, growth, prosperity, and decline, and the glory of the Ancient Tea Horse Road has also become a historical legend with the development of the times.