Today, at the invitation of a friend, we have come to Yibang Old Street (Yibang Ancient Town), so I will take you to see what Yibang Old Street looks like today. Yibang is the starting point of the Tea Horse Trail and is very famous in the Da Yiwu production area, as well as being quite ancient. The old county town of Mengla was located here.
Yibang is situated in a slightly central location among the Six Great Tea Mountains, with Mangzhuang, Mangzhi, Youle, and Gedeng around it. Further in is Yiwu (Mansha).
In the early Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the roads in the ancient town were still dirt roads. They were paved with stone slabs in 1845, so this stone slab road has a history of 180 years. Let's follow this 180-year-old stone slab road and take a look.
There are many old stone carvings and artifacts along the sides of the road. As soon as you step into Yibang Old Street, you can see and touch many very old artifacts everywhere. One particularly prominent one is a stone lion with a strong sense of age. We don't know exactly how far back it dates. There are also many bases of old houses' pillars nearby. This place may be one of the ancient towns in Yunnan with the most old artifacts displayed openly.
We walked about three or four hundred meters without finding any open shops inside. On both sides of the road are homes of people who live here or places that make tea, many of which are still closed. The overall environment is very quiet and secluded, making it very suitable for those who do not wish to be disturbed too much to come here, Drink some good tea, and rest.
Every household here likes to grow flowers. I also discovered the most interesting phenomenon: this centuries-old stone slab road allows all kinds of vehicles to drive in. There are no barriers at the entrances and exits. Other places may have been protected, but only here can vehicles still drive up. This indicates that few people come here; secondly, the construction quality from over 100 years ago was indeed very good; thirdly, the local people have done a good job maintaining it later on. I just inquired with a local resident, and there are two inns in the ancient town, both small in scale. If you want to stay here for a couple of days during the Spring Tea season to enjoy some peace and quiet, you must make a reservation in advance.
We wandered around in a circle and returned to where we entered. That concludes our trip to Yibang Old Street for this episode.