"Mydnight" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Curious exactly how such an "excellent" brick ended up in Shandong
> province. heh.
>

I think the website does give a rather detailed explanation to the history
of this brick...Shandong is next door to Hebei province, Zhaoliqiao is in
Hebei.

Anyway, if the site doesn't provide the history to the making of this brick,
here it is:

The Place.
Zhaoliqiao town, though it sounds like someone's name, was formerly a small
vhamlet named after the bridge Zhaotianqiao. When the railroad works began
in 1906, the railroad was paved through the hamlet, and the northerners
named it Zhaoliqiao, and the town was placed on the map due to the railway
in 1917, a part of the railroad that connects north and south of China.

There wasn't a tea factory in this town until after 1953. Not far from
Zhaoliqiao town is another town called Yangloudong town, which was known for
tea production, it was one of the 6 ancient towns in the city of Puqi in
Hebei province, and the town believed to produce the once famous Songfeng
tea (as recorded in Luyu's Chajing - the Book of Tea), it is also known as
the town of Brick Teas.

After the Opium War Yangloudong town was a gathering place for the Russians,
Germans, British and Japanese, who erected factories in this town. However,
after the Sino-Japanese wars the town was badly damaged and in declined, and
in 1953, the one and only tea factory left moved to Zhaoliqiao town where
the economy was striving, and was renamed Zhaoliqiao Brick Tea Factory.

It is interesting to note that in the early days of production, the factory
purchased their red tea dust from several sources, including India and
Ceylon, and the Russians were the early investors in the factory, including
those in the former town of Yangluodong.

Danny