Edinburgh Napier University

  This research examines how various stakeholders’ practices on the ground mobilise and immobilise the history and heritage of China's Ancient Tea Horse Road as a historic trade and caravan route. It departs from Cresswell’s (2006) view of mobile heritage as an intertwining of spatial, social, historical and embodied features manifested through mobilities. Specifically, the significance and potential of mobilities in the form of walking are foreground for the Tea Horse Road's development. Using mobile ethnography, the research follows the movements and experiences of tourists, guides and residents of the Tea Horse Road, as well as how these are accompanied by tourist-facing information on the remaining trails of this heritage route.

The findings indicate how the Tea Horse Road is positioned as collection of nodes by state actors and touristic media, while the linear aspects of its physical heritage, i.e. remaining trails, remain largely unacknowledged in tourist-facing media. At the same time, the research explores how explicitly mobile practices occurring along its trajectories are challenging the nodal interpretations of this historic route, identifying tourists, guides and local residents as important stakeholders, emphasising a more mobile interpretation of this heritage route. These findings are situated critically within the Chinese government's commitment to developing route heritage as outlined in the Wuxi declaration (Sigley, 2023) .