Two Visits to the Tea Countries of China and the British Tea Plantations in the Himalaya

Two Visits To The Tea Countries Of China And The British Tea Plantations In The Himalaya by Robert Fortune. This travelogue records Fortune's mid-19th-century journey through China to study and collecting tea plants and seeds for the British Empire. It chronicles his ascent from Shanghae through Ning-po, Hang-chow, and Hwuy-chow, describing tea regions, cultivation methods, seed propagation, and the processes of dyeing and preparing green and black teas. Fortune details landscapes, soils, and flora, and provides insights into the tea trade, transport routes from inland plantations to the coast, and the commercial dynamics between Chinese producers and foreign merchants. The work also offers ethnographic observations on city life, courtesies and misdirections faced by a foreigner, and interactions with mandarins, boatmen, and tea merchants. Beyond travelogue, it reveals the early globalization of the tea industry and the botanical exploration that supported colonial agriculture in India and elsewhere.