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Home > Travel China > China Attractions > Silk Road
Silk Road
China, an East Asian country is one of the world’s oldest civilizations. It has a vast cultural history of more than five thousand years and an outstanding natural beauty. On the other hand, this country has remained a comparatively isolated and secluded one, and being a land of mystery, this country is not known to the western half of the world. However, China is rapidly developing and has grown in the phase of modernization, with an immense speed and is also welcoming the outer world to interact and do business with them.
The Silk Road or Silk Route is an ancient trade route extends over 8,000 kilometers or 5,000 miles. Its influence carried over into Japan and Korea. Silk Road is a translation from the German, Seidenstrase. The first person who used the term was the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen during 1877.
This transcontinental route linked the Roman Empire in the west with the imperial court of China and was significant in the development and flowering of the great civilizations of China, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India and Rome as it helped to lay the foundations of the modern world.
The continental Silk Road starting from the old capitals of Luoyang and Xi’an, then called Chang'an, a great part of it threads its way through Xinjiang, southern Asia and reaches the Yellow River at Lanzhou and then skirts westward along deserts and mountains before diverging into three routes at the oasis of Dunhuang. The northern and southern land routes extend from the commercial centers of North China. The northern route passes through the Bulgar–Kypchak zone to Eastern Europe and the Crimean peninsula and from there across the Black Sea, Marmara Sea and the Balkans to Venice.
The southern route passes through Turkestan–Khorasan into Mesopotamia and Anatolia, and then through Antioch in Southern Anatolia into the Mediterranean Sea or through the Levant into Egypt and North Africa. The Silk Road on the Sea extends from South China, to present-day Philippines, Brunei, Siam, Malacca, Ceylon, India, Persia, Egypt, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. The last railroad link on the Silk Road was completed, when the international railway communication Almaty–Urumqi opened in 1992.
China is a popular travel destination for visitors and globe trotters from all over the world who appreciate its beautiful landscapes, rich culture, delicious local cuisine, hospitality and safety. Quality is China's top priority.
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