For the uninitiated, it's named after Pu'er Tea[1], a fermented Chinese tea that was made infamous by a previous imperial taste for the stuff and originates in the town of Pu'er[2] (recently renamed Ning'er), in Simao prefecture[2] (recently renamed Pu'er), Yunnan Province[3], China. The area is at the historical frontier of China, bordering Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Ning'er is notable for its specific altitude and soil. The same variety of tea was also grown in Yiwu, Xishuangbanna, a town so small and otherwise without note that it lacks a Wikipedia entry. Last time I visited, they had a wild monkey locked in a cage, probably for sale for the (no bullshit) Chinese delicacy of live monkey brains.* The second area was probably traded through a different, more easterly route to the north via Jianshui[4].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puer_tea" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puer_tea</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning%27er" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning%27er</a><p>[3] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puer_Prefecture" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puer_Prefecture</a><p>[4] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jianshui" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jianshui</a><p>* I lived in the area for 2.5 years.