North China's Shanxi province began to discover relics on the Tea Road, to prepare for the application of a world cultural heritage, according to provincial cultural authorities.

Field studies were carried out to discover the ancient roads, courier stations, temples, stags or courtyards that related to the Shanxi merchants in the province's Jincheng, Changzhi, Jinzhong, Taiyuan, Xinzhou, Suzhou and Datong.

Just like the Silk Road, the ancient Tea Road was a significant international trade channel through Eurasia. It started from Fujian in South China, ran through seven other provinces and autonomous region in China, and stopped in Mongolia and headed to Russia. The Tea Road extended over 13,000 kilometers in total.

China, Russia and Mongolia launched an initiative to jointly recognize the Tea Road as a world cultural heritage in September, 2013. Representatives of 31 cities from the three countries have agreed on the initiative.

The following December, eight Chinese provinces and autonomous region along the Tea Road, including Shanxi, Fujian and Inner Mongolia, planned to complete heritage resources investigation and value research by the end of September, 2015. A retread of Tea Road will be taken by experts in the first half of 2016.

Roadmap of Tea Road