Fourth Visit to Yunnan (Dali No. 9, Ancient Village of Nuodeng, Part 1)

Mountain paths winding and steep, houses stacked layer upon layer...

Nuodeng, a mountain village that gained nationwide fame through 'A Bite of China', struck me first with the formidable difficulty of its approach road.

The inn's landlady came to help carry our luggage; otherwise, we would have had to stay at a farmhouse down the mountain.

Most of the stone steps are not smooth cut slabs but irregular, raw stones laid in an uneven surface. I learned that they were deliberately laid this way to give mules and horses better footing and prevent slipping.

Mules and horses are still the main pack animals for villagers going in and out.

Every so often, animals block the path.

No wonder — this was originally a horse trail. Or, more precisely, it's the Ancient Salt Horse Road, a national highway of olden times.

Scattered big trees line the ancient route, and clumps of cactus embrace the stone steps.

The mountain trail isn't all toil; I distinctly sensed: 'ancient road, west wind, a lean horse'...

'a sparse bamboo fence, a path stretching deep'...

Ah, 'Within these things there is a true essence, but when I try to express it, I forget the words!'

Even the joint-torturing approach road had a certain refreshing and pleasing quality.

This salt well has been producing salt since the Western Han Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, a salt commissioner's office — the Tijusi Yamen — was established, and from then on this tiny mountain village administered all the salt wells in the Yunlong area.

On the stone-paved roads, caravans of salt-laden mules and horses crowded the route, reaching Tengchong, Baoshan, Myanmar, Dali, Tibet... Hence the name Salt Horse Road.

Salt, a daily necessity, once accounted for a large share of state tax revenue, and was a state monopoly until just a decade ago.

A friend messaged on WeChat that he hadn't seen any hams. Asking the villagers, we learned that the curing season was already over. The few hams now hanging in every household are just there to attract tourists, priced at 100 yuan per jin.

Before, boiling salt required cutting down trees for firewood, and the smoke rose thickly. Over twenty years ago, production ceased. Now only one well and one stove at the village entrance operate as a demonstration, supplying local curing and sales in the shops. In fact, villagers mostly buy iodized salt from outside for their own meals.

When it comes to hams, previously in Shanghai people only knew of Jinhua from Zhejiang and Xuanwei from Yunnan. Nuodeng was unheard of. It was 'A Bite of China' that propelled Nuodeng ham to prominence, surging ahead of the others.