The Silk Road Contains at Least Four Routes in A Broad Sense

The Silk Road in a broad sense contained at least four routes. Zhang Qian and his delegation opened up the most important one during the Western Han Dynasty. It started from Chang’an （today’s Xi’an）， headed up the Gansu Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region， on to Central and West Asia and eventually Europe.

Rather than a single route， the road comprised several branches. One went across Congling to Dayuan ， headed down to Bactria ， Sogdiana and Arsacid，leading to Lixuan in the eastern Roman Empire . Another branch traveled through Xuandu ， Jibin ， Alexandria Prophthasia to Taoke in the southwest. Heading southward from Jibin， a sub-branch reached the Indus river mouth . The route then led on to Persia and Rome by sea.

In order to avoid passing through the rival Western Xia （1038-1227） monarchy， in the 10th century the government of the Northern Song Dynasty （960-1127） opened up the Qinghai Route. It started from Tianshui in Gansu Province and passed through Qinghai and the Western Regions， functioning as an alternative southern route. Until now， most of the Persian silver coins discovered in China have been found in Qinghai Province. This shows that the region was of equal importance to the Hexi Corridor in the development of the Silk Road.

The Southwest Silk Road is the second of its kind. Before Zhang Qian and his delegation established the Silk Road mainline， merchants in Southwest China had followed a route from Sichuan capital Chengdu to Yunnan Province and on to Burma， India and Pakistan and Central Asia， where they exchanged goods. At that time， cloth and silk produced in Sichuan and Yunnan were in world demand. Merchants transported the products on mules via the Southwest Silk Road to India and Europe.

Another route is the Steppe Silk Road， which includes two sub-courses. The northern sub-course started from the Siberian Plateau， headed westward from the Mongolian Plateau and passed the Aral Sea， Caspian Sea and Black Sea to reach East Europe. The southern subcourse started from China’s northeast coast and followed the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains to reach Central and West Asia and East Europe. Until the Ming and Qing dynasties （1368-1911）， this route was also known as the Tea Road. Even during the 1930s and 1940s， merchants still frequently traveled to Ulan Bator， Khovd and Moscow via this route.

The Maritime Silk Road also played an important historical role. The Han Dynasty saw establishment of a shipping lane between Guangdong and India. A few centuries later， this sea route connected the coastal cities of Quanzhou and Hangzhou and went through the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Peninsula. The route further extended to the Indian Ocean， the Arabian Sea， the Arab Empire and the East African coast. The Maritime Silk Road was also known as the Maritime Chinaware Road and Maritime Aromatic Medicine Road， names reflecting the staple goods transported along it.

By the Tang Dynasty， Chang’an， starting point of the Silk Road， covered an area of 84 sq km – three times that of Rome. With a population of more than one million， Chang’an was then the world’s most populated city. 　　The Silk Road also left innumerable cultural heritages. Some， such as the Qin Dynasty （221-206 BC） terracotta warriors and horses and the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang， have survived till today. Others can never be restored. They include the Loulan Kingdom and Niya Ancient City in Xinjiang， and the Buddhas of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan， which the Taliban destroyed.