For centuries, chains of pack horses ferried Yunnan's premier export, Puer tea, in densely packed bricks along dizzying, slippery roads to Tibet and beyond.
But in the 1960s, with the construction of modern highways, more varieties of tea were being transported to major markets and Puer declined in popularity. Today, however, interest in the beverage is booming and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games is betting that next month's Games will be a prime time for overseas and domestic visitors to acquire, or reacquire, a taste for the tea.
This month, 50,000 sets of licensed Puer tea products will be sold at Olympic merchandise outlets as a result of a deal involving Bocog, Coca-Cola and the Kunming-based Longrun Tea Group.
Xie Bin , director of Longrun's Beijing branch, said the products would be the first from Yunnan authorised to use the 2008 Olympic Games logo.
One set of Puer tea will be given to the International Olympic Committee to go into its museum archive.
'It is a great success that Puer tea is being associated closely with the Olympics,' Longrun group board chairman Jiao Jialiang said.