In the river section from Li Bu town in Cangwu County, Guangxi to Fengkai town in Guangdong Province, the Tea-laden boats switch to larger sailing vessels. The Tanka people, operating as families or clans, join in with great enthusiasm, leaving indelible marks in the annals of the ancient tea boat route.
The blazing sun of mid-June is intense, even as evening approaches, the temperature remains quite high.
In a small store next to the cultural playground in Shadi Village, Li Bu Town, Cangwu County, four elderly villagers – Mai Ruiqing, Nie Fuwen, Mai Weixiong, and Mai Xiuxing sit together. These elders are now in their late seventies and eighties; they spent years navigating the waterway between Liubao Town in Cangwu, Guangxi and Jiangkou Town in Fengkai County, Guangdong. They know every detail of this waterway and can even point out where the Jilong Wharf once stood on the riverbank next to the cultural playground before 1950.
Nowadays, these elderly men often gather under the eaves of the small store, reminiscing over a pot of cool tea. Unknowingly, they open up memories that have been long forgotten…
Unloading at Li Bu and Switching to Larger Boats
Li Bu Town is located in central Cangwu County. Following the Liubao River upstream, it connects to Liubao Town in the northwest and leads southward along the Dong'an River and Hejiang River, reaching Mushuang Town in Cangwu County and Jiangkou Town in Fengkai County, Guangdong Province.
Li Bu Town has had convenient Water transportation since ancient times. The Liubao River runs through the center of the town, with shops and residences lining both banks. Boats shuttle back and forth, and countless vessels loaded with Liubao tea and bamboo and timber rafts rest and unload here.
Before 1950, Li Bu had three wharves: Jilong, Huili, and Heyi. These wharves were primarily used for cargo transfer. Behind each wharf was a merchant house, mainly dealing in daily goods and sundries. The owners of these merchant houses were merchants from Guangdong. Even today, the old boatman Nie Fuwen remembers: “Around 1950, the overall economy of Li Bu Town had already fallen into a trough, and the owner of the Jilong merchant house couldn't even make change for a 1,500-yuan Guanjinkuan (legal tender).”
Around 1950, whenever there was cargo loading and unloading, dust would fly around the wharf in Li Bu. Many suitcases and baskets were piled up by the river, and the air was filled with the smell of sweat, tea, fruit, and dried goods.
As an important stop on the ancient tea boat route, the tea-laden boats and bamboo rafts coming from Liubao Town would stop in Li Bu Town for a break. After the pointed boats delivered the tea to Li Bu, the crew would transfer the tea and other goods onto local wooden sailing vessels.
In those days, cargoes were carried off the boats one after another by the boatmen, distributed to the shops in town and the baskets of small traders, or loaded onto larger wooden boats.
At that time, there were more than ten large wooden sailing vessels in Li Bu Town, each capable of carrying about 20 tons. Once these large sailing vessels were fully loaded, they would set sail for the next destination – Jiangkou Town in Guangdong Province.
Every winter, a large number of bamboo and timber rafts would float down the Liubao River, passing through Li Bu and heading downstream along the Xijiang River all the way to Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The old boatmen in town say that when large numbers of bamboo rafts passed through Li Bu, they turned the Dong'an River black, and small boats full of tea also flowed downstream with them.
Dong'an River Waterfront in Mushuang
For the boatmen and raft workers, Li Bu Town was not only a place to transfer cargo but also a resting spot. After docking the boats or rafts at the Li Bu wharf, the boatmen or raft workers would start fires to cook meals. There was plenty of driftwood scattered along the riverbank, which made excellent firewood. Without the need to search for firewood, they would light a fire using what was available, then set up a wok and dump all the food they brought, whether raw or cooked, into it. After the fire heated the pot, a large pot of fresh, fragrant, salty, and sweet food would be ready, containing all sorts of flavors.
On rainy days, the boatmen and raft workers would come ashore and rest in the inns next to the wharf. These inns were run by locals in Li Bu, and the fees were not low, requiring five or six cents (copper coins) to stay overnight. The facilities were rudimentary, with just a few large communal beds, and extra money had to be paid for meals.
Tanka People's Diet and Accommodation in the 1930s
Tanka People in the Xijiang River Basin in the 1940s
The Whole Family Manned the Boats
After arriving in Li Bu, the tea transported by the pointed boats and bamboo rafts was mostly transferred to larger wooden boats. These wooden boats had a single mast and sail, and each boat had three to four crew members, typically operating as a family or clan unit, with “the whole family participating,” referring to the Tanka people who lived entirely on the boats.
Once a single-masted wooden boat was fully loaded, it would depart immediately, often traveling in groups, occasionally setting sail alone. Along the Dong'an River into the Hejiang River, then down the Xijiang River, they would reach Jiangkou or Yunan Doucheng in Guangdong Province, where the cargo would be transferred to even larger cargo ships. This journey was over 100 kilometers, with hidden reefs and many rapids and shoals. Whenever faced with difficulties, the boatmen had to get into the water to tow the boats or pull them ashore with ropes. At that time, it was common to see this scene along the riverside from Liubao to Jiangkou: boatmen, carrying long bamboo ropes on their backs, hunched over and crawling on the rocky banks, sometimes wading through the rushing river, their wet, dark bodies indistinguishable between river water, sweat, and tears.
Along the waterway from Li Bu to Jiangkou, Mushuang Town in Cangwu County was another important stop that could not be avoided. Looking at the map, the Dong'an River flows north-south, with Li Bu located at its northern end and Mushuang Town in the middle. Passing through Mushuang leads into the Hejiang River, and following the Hejiang River downstream reaches Jiangkou Town in Fengkai County, Guangdong Province. The tea and mountain products coming from Liubao via Li Bu Town and the grains and local produce arriving by sandtou boats from Shatou and Shiqiao would converge in Mushuang, making it another stop on the ancient tea boat route.
For the boatmen on the single-masted wooden boats traveling between Li Bu and Jiangkou and Doucheng, Mushuang was a place to dock and rest during their journey. According to Wu Kunan, an elder in Mushuang Town, before the 1950s, close to the end of the year, hundreds of Tanka people would dock and rest in the Dong'an River section opposite Mushuang Town, while the population of Mushuang Street at the time was less than two hundred people.
Mushuang Was Also a Transfer Point
Today, on the walls on both sides of the wharf in Mushuang Town, yellowed black-and-white photos are pasted. The photos depict the tranquil Dong'an River, bustling water transport wharves, cargo boat teams with boats closely lined up, and the bamboo poles for rowing boats that have gradually faded from memory…
In the memories of the old boatmen