Here is the first post by Linus Hammarstrand:

Camels loaded with Tea bound for Russia (1878)

For millenniums, the tea trade between China and its surrounding neighbours was both politically important, as well as highly lucrative. One less well known trade-route is the northbound route, which connected China with Russia.

This picture was taken in 1878 by a Swedish traveller and reportedly no fever than 2000 fully laden camels passed by the photographer in one day!

Huge caravans, consisting of tens of thousands of camels, could frequently be encountered in the Gobi desert during trading seasons, as they transported black tea to the Russian frontier towns. At this time, in Mongolia and Tibet, as well as in Siberia, coinage was not widely used and the locals often settled their accounts by bartering tea.

Related: Martin Lindeskog‘s post, Tea and Gold.