Tea Horse Road – Guangming Ancient Road

Tea Horse Road – Guangming Ancient Road

Tea Horse Road – Guangming Ancient Road is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Guangming Ancient Road is located in Gongkuang Community, Fuji Town, Luxian County. It runs from southeast to northwest and was first built during the Tang Dynasty. The existing section is 1,091 meters long and 1.7 to 2.9 meters wide. The southeastern end of the road links to an old section of Shilongchang, with well-preserved historic architecture on both sides. This stretch is part of a significant branch of the Tea Horse Road in southern Sichuan and serves as an important connector between Luzhou’s Tea Horse Road and the main route. It allows access to Neijiang and Zigong on the Tea Horse Road network through junctions in Longchang and Fushun counties.

Like the broader Tea Horse Road, the Luxian section formed part of the vital trade route used for tea-for-horse exchanges between Han and Tibetan regions from the Tang and Song dynasties through the Republican era. From Luxian, the route led to Neijiang and Chengdu, then joined the main Tea Horse Road – the Sichuan–Tibet route, known today as the northern section of the Sichuan–Tibet Highway, and continued onward to Tibet via Chamdo. Historical records indicate that Luxian’s ancient road dates back to the Tang Dynasty. The total length of the Tea Horse Road in Luxian reached 150 kilometers, with about 15 kilometers still preserved. Numerous remnants of the ancient road exist, and Guangming Ancient Road is one of its representative sections.