China's Ancient Tea-Horse Road: An Unseen Realm of Forests & Villages

I'm here at Yulong Snow Mountain in Yunnan. At 3,500 metres, there's a hidden forest of giants. Boduoluo sits on the north face of Yulong Snow Mountain. This is the highest village here and where my trek begins. Hello. What's your name? Xie Liu. I'm Xie Liu. These herbs were picked by Mr Liu himself. Do you get lost? We know. When we come out of the forest, we're like animals in the mountains. When we come out of the forest, we see the primitive forest. He offers to make me some herbal tea. On this chilly mountain morning, cradling the cup in my hands, I feel a deep warmth. We're walking in the primitive forest. The feeling of greenery and fragrance is because of the coolness of human nature. There's no development. This tree is 3,000-year-old. It was cut down by the wind. One day, it was cut down by the wind. It was crushed by the snow. It hasn't been cut down. The one we saw just now is thousands of years old. It's like a spider. I feel very comfortable in here. The light is very soft. And it's all green. It's like a natural eye massage. Did these trees just fall down? When we were very young, we fell down from here when we rode horses. I guess it's been 300 years. What is this chestnut tree? It's very hard to rot. Don't look at the skin. The skin is like this. It's still very good inside. In ancient times, there must have been no tents here. They would find some trees and dig a small hole here and slowly burn it. Burn, burn, burn. Then it would turn into something like this. Actually, one person can lean here and make a fire. There's no problem with the fire. It's a shelter from the wind and rain. It's also anti-insects. And a lot of trees on the island are also because of this. Thick moss covers these fallen logs like a blanket soothing their spirits to rest. I'm looking at the scenery to have lunch. This is the best chili we have at home. It's fried with wild mushrooms. We can have a hearty lunch at noon. There's pu'er tea, tomatoes, baba, and chili. Is it delicious? Yes, very delicious. We're on the move again. This part is clearly much tougher. Now we're going to try to finish it in an hour and see if we can succeed. Let's go. What time is it now? 1.50am. 2.50am. Is it the top if we climb to the top? Okay. Wow, this wood is alive. I'm already out of breath. I still took the anti-insect medicine in advance. It's still tough. Lu Rong. We're less than halfway now. I feel like my heart rate is at 140 now. I'm already out of breath. The road ahead is still steep. We're finally halfway. Halfway through. Let's go. Now, we're almost at the top. I'm so happy. Suddenly, there's a herd of cows. Hello, little cow. Yes, yes. We're going out. We're going to run some errands in the morning. Then we'll go back. Okay. It's very quiet in here. We've arrived at the second pasture. What time is it now? It's just in time. We left at 1.49am. Now it's 2.50pm. It's just in time for an hour. We're still very good. Especially me. I'm still very good. The mountains have saved this little piece of the world for the animals. This place belongs to the oaks, the azaleas, the yaks, the moths, the bears. It belongs to all creatures. Of course, at this moment, I still have no idea what awaits me next. In the pouring rain, the descent begins. We go lower, and lower, and lower still. The reason for our rather undignified rush, we've discovered this place has plenty of leeches. There it is. That village is the end of today's leg. Tranquility is so close, yet I feel like a complete mess. With my energy completely spent, my spirits are a little low, but this is the true world of all creatures. It's so spacious here. It's so comfortable. I feel that the Naxi people still have their own aesthetic sense On the roof, they would hang up a sign that said, there's no fire. It's also very beautiful from here. The little cat sitting on the roof is a beautiful cat. At the door of this house, I saw a couplet that said, three generations. The Naxi people have this tradition. If a relative passed away, within three years, there would be a couplet like this on the roof. It's a little higher than the city. The temperature is only a few degrees below zero. Other places still wear short sleeves. We're starting to wear fleece. Let's go for a walk. Yes, let's go for a walk. You can go for a walk here too. It's so cute. The leeches are lying down and sleeping. Mama, mama, mama. A Russian writer who once lived in Lijiang wrote this, Whenever I took this road to Lijiang in spring, I was lost in admiration. I had to dismount and gaze upon this heavenly view. The climate is mild, the air fragrant, carrying the fresh breath from the great snow mountain towering above the plain. For me, my first time here years ago, this was the landscape from the book. But coming back now, I find this little village has been invaded. Standing in the meadows, what meets my eye is no longer a uniform view of Naxi houses, but various modern structures. It saddens me. Is our very pursuit of hidden paradises actually accelerating their disappearance?