Author Archives: JeffFuchs

About JeffFuchs

Bio Having lived for most of the past decade in Asia, Fuchs’ work has centered on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories with an obsessive interest in tea. His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in award-winning publications Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post and Traveler amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America and Asia and he serves as the Asian Editor at Large for Canada’s award-winning Outpost magazine. Fuchs is the Wild China Explorer of the Year for 2011 for sustainable exploration of the Himalayan Trade Routes. He recently completed a month long expedition a previously undocumented ancient nomadic salt route at 4,000 metres becoming the first westerner to travel the Tsa’lam ‘salt road’ through Qinghai. Fuchs has written on indigenous perspectives for UNESCO, and has having consulted for National Geographic. Fuchs is a member of the fabled Explorers Club, which supports sustainable exploration and research. Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures. He has spoken to the prestigious Spanish Geographic Society in Madrid on culture and trade through the Himalayas and his sold out talk at the Museum of Nature in Canada focused on the enduring importance of oral narratives and the Himalayan trade routes. His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures. He makes his home in ‘Shangrila’, northwestern Yunnan upon the eastern extension of the Himalayan range where tea and mountains abound; and where he leads expeditions the award winning ‘Tea Horse Road Journey’ with Wild China along portions of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. To keep fueled up for life Fuchs co-founded JalamTeas which keeps him deep in the green while high in the hills.

The Glacier’s Breath – Bara Shigri

So much of what is good and cherished in my days is both deliberately tea related and in some wonderful cases accidentally tea related. Days into ‘The Glacier’s Breath’ expedition tin cups are held in a large semi-circle of bodies … Continue reading

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Expedition – The Glacier’s Breath

Preparing to head back into the precious Himalayas of Ladakh for a month of living atop two glaciers to see what the great bodies of ice are up to. It is part of an initiative not simply to ‘explore’ and … Continue reading

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The Himalayas Matter – Portraits from the Heights

Portraits from the Himalayas Continue reading

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Southwest – Arriving to Pu erh Tea Central

Pu erh tea and its people and geography of southern Yunnan. A journey into sips Continue reading

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Wuyishan Oolongs – Rock Teas and Red Robes

A journey to Wuyishan to search out the origins and process of the famed Oolong Rock Teas of Chinese tea fame Continue reading

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Green Tea – Long Jing’s Three Roasts and One Roaster

Looking at Long Jing Tea in Hangzhou with a look at where, who and how Continue reading

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A Little More Winter

Winter in the Himalayas “Often leaves in small stages…but sometimes it simply leaves one night” says Kersang from her village near Deqin in northwestern Yunnan. It is still ‘spring’ of this year when she says this. Being Tibetan she feels … Continue reading

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Mountains and Their Precious Rivers

Returning to northwestern Yunnan’s snow-clad mountains and their precious waterways. We’ll wander up the Salween River (pronounced Gyalmo Gyul Chu and written རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ། in Tibetan) to the eastern extension of the Himalayas and a slow route south along portions of both the … Continue reading

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A Brilliant Bit of Puerh Sampled…at Last

“What you taste when you know what has gone into creating that Pu erh cake of tea is an entirely different sensation than that same tea served without its story, without its hands”. Continue reading

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The Ancient Tea Horse Road – Now in Portuguese

As an old trader along the Ancient Tea Horse Road once remarked to our team as we traveled through his village, “You all are lucky because you can read, you can write, and can tell a story that many will … Continue reading

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