Rise and Decline
The Silk Road approached its heyday in the Han Dynasty （206 BC-AD 220）， although travel along it began much ear-lier. Archeologists confirm the existence of an intermittent trade route across the prairies along the Nile， Tigris， Euphrates， Indus and Yellow rivers， consisting of a number of minor passages that caravans traversed.
As early as 5，000 years ago， lapis lazuli， the deep blue semi-precious stone originating in Afghanistan， had made its way into Egypt. This further attests to the flow of goods along this prairie passage that later evolved into the Silk Road. About 1，000 years later， lapis lazuli was brought into Harappa， a large city of the Indus Civilization. Soon after it entered China， and became revered as one of the seven treasures of Buddhism.
Soft jade artifacts from Xinjiang found in the tomb of Lady Hao， concubine of King Wuding， last monarch of the Shang Dynasty， constitute more evidence of exchanges between the inland Chinese civilization and neighboring regimes to its west and beyond.
Zhang Qian （？-114 BC）， of the Western Han Dynasty， the first Chinese envoy to Central Asia， noticed in a market in Daxia – the Chinese name for today’s Afghanistan – bamboo walking sticks and fabrics made in Sichuan Province. This observation， again， implies early trade ties between China and Central Asia.
Exchanges between China and the world peaked during the Han Dynasty. In 138 BC a delegation of more than 100 people led by Zhang Qian left the Han capital of Chang’an （today’s Xi’an） for countries to the empire’s west， histori-cally known as the Western Regions. To show their good will， the many regimes Zhang visited sent reciprocal delegates to Western Han. During the subsequent Eastern Han Dynasty， Ban Chao （AD 32-102） made several trips to the Western Regions and was later appointed official in charge of affairs there. In AD 97 Ban dispatched Gan Ying to Rome， but stormy weather on the seas forced him to drop anchor in the Persian Gulf. As a consequence， little more than half a century later in AD 166 a Persian delegation arrived in Luoyang， capital of the Eastern Han. This was the first direct contact between China and Europe.
Traffic along the Silk Road gained pace during the Tang Dynasty （618-907）. Records show that about 4，000 Arab and Persian expatriates purchased properties in China at that time. When Huang Chao and his rebels sacked Guangzhou towards the end of the dynasty in 879， the local population of Jews， Roman immigrants， Christians and Zoroastrians numbered between 120，000 and 200，000.
In the dynasties after the Tang， China’s economic center gradually gravitated south， closer to the coast. This led to the southward extension of the terrestrial Silk Road and establishment of the maritime Silk Road. Southern cities like Guangzhou， Chengdu and Quanzhou consequently became economic hubs. The Mongol invasions in the 13th century under Genghis Khan （1162-1227） of North and West Asia promoted connectivity between China and Europe. On receiving passes from the Mongol empire， merchants and emissaries were free to travel between the two destinations.
There were various reasons for the decline of the Silk Road after Genghis Khan’s grandson Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty （1271-1368）. One was the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. The Turks’ general encroachment having severed the main overland trade link between Europe and Asia， European traders considered traveling to Asia by sea. Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama made this possible after becoming the first European to navigate a sea route to India. Certain scholars hold that exacerbated desertification also played a role in the fall of the overland Silk Road， as many cities along it were engulfed by sand dunes.
Despite Zheng He and his fleet’s seven successful maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1433 to more than 30 Asian and African countries， the Ming Dynasty（1368-1644） imposed a ban on sea trade. During much of its existence， China’s doors to the rest of the world were largely closed. In the West， meanwhile， the Age of Discovery had begun. As sea routes were explored and sailing became safer and more reliable， land routes fell out of favor with travelers and merchants.
The Silk Road commanded world attention once more in the 21st century， with the building along it of the 10，900-km transcontinental railway connecting Lianyungang， Jiangsu Province in the east with Rotterdam， the Netherlands， in the west. It thus reverted to its function of facilitating China’s international trade.
Interest in the Silk Road has inten- sified worldwide in recent years. In February 2008， senior officials from 19 European and Asian countries， including China， Russia， Iran and Turkey， signed an agreement in Geneva promising more investment in restoring the Silk Road and other time-honored passages of trade between Asia and Europe.
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