About the Silk Road, the sericulture and silk cultivation are first developed between three and five thousand years ago in the Yellow River region that forms Chinese traditional heartland. From here, it spread east to Korea and Japan and south to Vietnam, but most famously west, along the ancient trade route that would come to bear its name. Today, the section of the Silk Road that lies within Chinese frontiers encompasses almost half of the fabled caravan route that joined ancient China with Greece and Rome, and passes through some of the wildest and most spectacular sceneries on earth.

Winding Route of Silk Road
The Silk Road started from historic city - Xian. From Xian, it winds west through the spectacular gorges of the Wei River and the rich yellow soil of Chinese vast loess region to the old garrison city of Lanzhou, at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor. Hemmed in to the north by the barren wastes of the Gobi Desert and to the south by the permanently snow-covered peaks of the Qilian Shan, it passes from oasis to oasis through Gansu Province until it reaches Yumenguan, the jade Gate that traditionally marked the western limits of China proper. Here, the Silk Road splits into northern and southern branches as it enters Chinese largest province - Xinjiang Province. The Silk Road continues west, passing along the northern and southern rim of the Tarim Basin which forms one of the most extraordinary geographical features anywhere on earth. As its center lie the impenetrable shifting sands of the Taklamakan Desert, while to the south, north and west stand serried ranks of snow-capped mountain ranges, Kunlun Shan, Tian Shan and Pamir, all names redolent with the mystique of ancient Silk Road.

Sightseeing of Silk Road on Suburb Area
Just around the Tarim Basin, squeezed in the narrow piedmont plain between mountain and desert, lie a series of fertile, poplar-lined oasis, fed by the icy runoff from distant glaciers. Linked by the Silk Road like beads on the thread, they have served for millennia as halting places for long-distance caravans and are home to a succession of different people. Different mountains, deserts and oasis are all exhibited in these suburb areas adding much natural tastes to ancient Silk Road.

Silk Road is busy but more spectacular on the whole journey. If you are interested, Silk Road tour is waiting for you!

The world renowned Silk Road has survived dozens of Chinese feudal dynasties and enjoyed a long-standing history. As the most prosperous dynasty in ancient China, Tang Dynasty played an active role in spreading the Silk Road.

Details about Silk Road in Tang Dynasty
With the Tang Dynasty entering into the prosperity, northwest silk road again attracted attention of Chinese ruler. In order to get through this route, Tang government took control of western countries after it defeated Tujue and established Anxi four towns as the institutions. The newly built Yumen Pass of the Tang Dynasty, once again opened the pass to the west. And through the Tianshan, Silk Road west line opened to central Asia. After the East Silk Road was opened again, new trade routes branch was constantly opening up, people found in the Qinghai area plenty of the Persian silver coins, showing that Qinghai was also an important pass in the Hexi Corridor Area. After the East Rome, the Persian Empire period (mid 17 Century after the Arabia Empire replaced the Central Asian hegemony Persian), Silk Road had remained relatively stable for a long time, and this route once again entered in a period of prosperity.

Influence on Tang Dynasty
A direct result of the Silk Road trading activity is that it greatly stimulated desire for consumption of Tang people, because the business first brought plenty exotic treasures to the rich. Silk Road trading activity mainly consisted of odd goods back then, from slavery, artist, kabuki to livestock, wild animals, plants, spice, pigment from the skin to the gold and silver jewelry, metal ore, from the tools to weapon instruments - almost everything that one expects to find. Along with the foreign technology introduced into China, religion, customs and other things were also brought to China. All these have become especially when Tang plutocratic family consumption object and consumption fashion. Relatively speaking, the consumption power of Tang Dynasty was much stronger than other dynasties, so the rich had enough ability to pursue luxury goods and the Silk Road provided them with more opportunities. Imperial Royal landlords loved exotic performance, common people loved exotic wares. The pursuit of a variety of foreign luxury goods and priceless treasures atmosphere began to spread from the palace to the general city residents.

Overall, Silk Road played an important role in enriching lives of Tang people.

As we all know, Silk Road provided a cultural and commercial link between half of mankind, joining East and West and provided a constantly moving pathway for goods and ideas, peoples and entertainment. Between Changan and the Mediterranean, it passed through many diverse peoples and lands, which today include at least 13 countries, each with its own official language. Was there a universal lingua franca? Or did traders and cameleers employ interpreters, or resort to sign languages?

Language Truth on Silk Road
For talking about various guessing, the reality of language on Silk Road is clearly merchants and caravaneers have employed both sign language and the use of an interpreter, whenever and wherever necessary. And while there was no universal language employed between the Mediterranean and the Yellow River Valley, certain languages were more useful and more widely spoken than others.

Nation Languages during Silk Road Period
Earlier in the ancient times, China is unchanging political entity along the route of Silk Road. Chinese generally the Putonghua or common speech of Beijing and North China is known as Mandarin in the West. Other languages spoken along the easternmost stretch of the Silk Road include Mongol and Tibetan, neither of which would have been possible exception of Mongol during the Yuan Dynasty. At the earliest ancient times, the Greek and later Latin were the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world and the Levant. During the time of Alexander the Great, and under the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdoms in south and central Asia, no doubt Greek functioned as a language trade - with Greek letters used on coinage minted in Bactra and other distant outposts of the Greek world.

Tongues on Silk Road
Finally, mention should be made of more recent additions to the languages of the Silk Road - Tongues. It would be little heard or not at all, when the traditional Silk Road was at its peak, but which now serves as useful international languages the length of the Silk Road modern equivalent. The first is the Russian and second is English.

Silk Road is just like a culture world where all the human beings civilization promoted step by step. It is a treasure decoration all the national process!