has anyone ever traveled portions of the silk road?
 

curious to hear your stories...

-<BR>Anyone? I'd also like to read about experience.

I think this kind of query receives no replies because it's simply too vague, and so it's difficult to know what to say. There was no such thing as 'the' silk road, but many trading routes (no 'road' either) crossing a vaste swathe of Asia from China to the Eastern Mediterranean. <BR><BR>To start with, which part interests you--China, Central Asia, further west?<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

There is such a thing as the SIlk Road and it generally encompasses theroute from Xian west to Tulfan, Urumqi and to Kashgar (near the Afghanistan border). I'm in Turfan, a desert oasis, as I write this note. The best guidebook is THe Silk ROad by Judy Bonavia. It's in its 6th printing and has been invaluable.

My earlier message needed reading a little more carefully perhaps. I'm the author of one guide to the regions, and subsequently edited the last but one edition of Bonavia's less comprehensive (but excellent) book.<BR><BR>'Silk Road' is a rather poor translation of the German expression 'Seidenstrasse', which might be better glossed as 'Silk Route', since there were no roads as we understand them at the time. The expression is anyway a modern one, only coined in the 19th century by a German geographer, and meant to refer to a relay race of trade between China, multiple intermediaries, the Near East and ultimately parts of Europe, by numerous routes.<BR><BR>These varied greatly over time, and indeed the route on which <BR>Turpan stands was not even the most popular for much of the period until maritime trade (via Quanzhou and elsewhere) supplanted overland traffic.<BR><BR>Although much trade from Xi'an of necessity followed the narrow green belt of the Gansu Corridor, there were alternatives (not covered by Bonavia) through Ningxia or Qinghai. At Dunhuang there was a division in the major route around either side of the Lop desert, and subsequently the Taklamakan one. The northern route (on which Turpan stands) is the more developed in modern times, but the southern one (via Khotan) retains more of its Central Asian flavour.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html