Silk Road-China

A historic journey

For a taste of the route Silk Road traders took during the heyday of trading trekking across deserts and treacherous peaks, there’s nothing like experiencing the Silk Road.  Of course, with the advance of better roads, improved sanitary conditions and high-speed train connections between some of the cities on the Silk Road, traveling is much easier today.  From the Terracotta warriors in Xian to the extreme heat at the Flaming Mountains in Xinjiang province, journeying on the Silk Road in China was an experience like no other.  The best time to go is definitely June, just before it gets too warm and the weather is still a bit chilly in the mornings and evenings in some cities.

Extending over 6000km, the series of trade routes stretching across China and India to Africa and Europe was fundamental in promoting trade between the West and East at the beginning of the Han dynasty, around 206 BC.  In China, the Northern Silk Road covers the Xinjiang, Gansu and Shanxi provinces and further splits into three routes, two going to the north and south of the Takiamakan Desert and another going through the north of Tian Shan mountains before rejoining at Kashgar.  From this route, traders traveled between modern day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  While known as the silk road, silk was only one of the valuable goods that merchants sought, other goods like nuts, dates, saffron, sandalwood and porcelain were popular at the time.

Objects weren’t the only things being traded, more importantly, cross-cultural ideas and religions spread because of the Silk Road.  While Buddhism originated in India, with the spread of the religion to China, it was become the mainstream religion during the past and present, as evidenced by remarkable caves carved by monks at sites such as the Mogao Caves and the Luoyang Grottoes.

Watch for more to come on my journey on the Silk Road!