The Silk Road is the world"s most ancient commercial artery, and it ran across most of the countries of the known world.

The Silk Road is a great East to West trade route and vehicle for cross-culture exchange started in the second century BC. It was first traveled by the adventure of Zhang Qian started the journey to the far West for the political contact with Yuezhi, a nomadic tribe, in 138 BC. But, it was only in 1870s that the geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen gave the name by which we now know as the Silk Road.

The Silk Road, most important premodern trade route linking China, Central Asia, Persia and western Asia, and Europe. A 19th-century German scholar named the network of trails the Silk Road for the precious Chinese cloth that was originally the most valuable and abundant commodity transported on it. Although historians traditionally date the origin of the Silk Road to the 2nd century bc, a trickle of goods—principally jades, bronzes, and silks—was conveyed across Central Asia as early as about 1000 bc. Commerce persisted on the Silk Road until ocean-borne trade surpassed and superseded trade on the land route in the late 15th and early 16th centuries ad.

Scenery along the Silk Road:
Xian,Lanzhou,Wuwei,Zhangye,Jiayuguan Pass,Dunhuang,Yangguan Pass,Hami,Turpan,Urumqi,Loulan,Korla,Kuqa (Kucha),Aksu,Kashgar (Kashi),Hotan



Xian
The Terra-cotta Warriors and Horse of Xi"an, is the greatest archeological found of this century. The other landmark like Big Wild Goose Pagoda mirrors China"s long history.

Lanzhou
Lanzhou is in the shape of a narrow & long valley circled by hills and the Yellow River. The city is named Lanzhou because it is locaed in the central section of Gansu Province, with Gaolan Mountain Range to its south.

Yangguan Pass
Yangguan Pass lies 75 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang. It was originally set up by Emperor Wu in Hang Dynasty as one of the two passes protecting Dunhuang from the west.

Hami
Hami was an important town on the northern route of the Old Silk Road. It is also famous for its Hami melons.

Urumqi
Urumqi means "A beautiful Pasture land " in ancient Mongolian. It is the educational, cultural and political centre of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Xinjiang Museum
Xinjiang Museum has a collection of historical relics of the various nationalities living in the region, and its exhibits include Roman and Persian coins and other relics of the Silk Road.

Loulan
Loulan was a town on the central Old Silk Road where the Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) central government built its administrative organization.

Korla
it is located in the southern Xinjiang, in the Tarim Basin and the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. Tiemen Pass (The Iron Gate)--the pass was an important point along the route into the Tarim Basin in the ancient times.



Aksu
Aksu Prefecture is easily reached by highway, railway and air. It has many cultural sites, such as Buddhist grottoes likethe Kizil, Kumutura, Mazabeg and Simsem grottoes.

Shenmu Garden
Shenmu Garden is located northwest 60 km of Wensu County , elevation 1,700 meters, covering more than 600 acres, also known as "Pearl of the Gobi".

Zhangye
Zhangye is a town with a long glorious hisory.It is a most small station on the Lanzhou-Urumqi rail line.

Giant Buddha Temple
Giant Buddha Temple is the largest architectural relic in Gansu Province, China”s largest reclining Buddha is well preserved in this temple.

Wooden Tower of Sui Dynasty
The 31-metre-tall Mu Ta , also named Wooden Tower located just a few hundred metres north of the Zhangye Hotel, built as long ago as the sixth century, before being burnt down and then restored in 1925.

Bell Tower
The Bell Tower is located in the city center. It was first built in 1507 AD and reconstructed during the Qing Dynasty.

Drum Tower
Drum Tower is located in the city center of Zhangye, the biggest drum tower in the Hexi Corridor of the silk road district, was built during the Ming Dynasty (1507).



Jiayuguan Pass
Jiayuguan Pass is the western end of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. It is also the most important and best-preserved pass among the over thousand passes of the GReat Wall built during in Ming Dynasty.

Wei-jin Tombs
Wei-Jin Mural Brick Tomb which is called " Underground Art Gallery" or ‘Wei-Jin Art Gallery’. It is located in the 20km northeast of Jiayuguan, in a barren section on the outer limits of the Gobi desert.

Hanging Great Wall
Overhanging Great Wall is an extended part of the Jiayuguan Pass, and was once an important component in the medieval military defense system.

First Fire Tower of Great Wall
First Fire Tower of Great Wall is located in the south of Jiayuguan City about seven kilometers, regarded as the world”s first frustum, or cut-off pyramid. This structure marks the western beginning of the Ming Great Wall.

Kuqa (Kucha)
Kuqa is located in southern Xinjiang at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. In the past it was an important town on the central Old Silk Road. It is now under the administration of of Aksu Prefecture.

Kizil Grottoes
Kizil, 70 km from Kuqa County, is the venue of one of China”s four grottoes which was built earlier than Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, were first built in the third century.



Kashgar (Kashi)
From the west, this is the first stop for the arrivals on land routes from Pakistan and Kirgyzistan. As a vital stop on the Silk Road, this remote city is about some 4,000 km from Beijing.

Lake Karakuli
Karakuli lake, situated 3600 m above sea level, about 1500 kilometers from Urumqi in southwest of Xinjiang, is one of the most beautiful highland lakes in Xinjiang China.

Hotan
Hotan is located in the southern Tarim Basin. It was once the site of the Yutian Kingdom which had dominated the southern route of the Old Silk Road.Yutian was the first area in China to take Buddhism.

Dunhuang
Dunhuang City is located to the west part of Hexi Corridor, Gansu Province. Dunhuang City is famous for its historical culture of China and an important ancient city on Silk Road in ancient time.

Crescent Lake
Crescent Lake also name Yueyaquan, is a crescent-shaped lake in the oasis.

Echoing-sand Dune
The Echoing-Sand Dune is five kilometers away from the city of Dunhuang, offers superb picture-book desert scenery.

Mogao Grottoes
The common name for the grottoes is the Thousand Buddha caves. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years.

Dunhuang Museum
Dunhuang Museum was established in 1979. It was previously the location of an archaeological group of the county culture centre.



Turpan
Turpan is located in the Turpan Basin at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.Called Gaochang in ancient times, it was a major stop on the northern route of the Old Silk Road and is the hottest, lowest and driest place in China.

Beziklik Thousand Buddha Caves
The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves are seventy caves dating from the 5th to the 9th centuries between the cities of Turpan and Shanshan (Loulan) at the north-east of the Taklamakan Desert in China.

Gaochang
Gaochang was an ancient Chinese city, located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan in Xinjiang. It played a key role as a transportation hub in western China.

Astana Tombs
The Astana tombs, where the nobles of Gaochang were buried, have turned up examples of silk cloth from China, as well as objects from as far afield as Persia and India.

Wuwei
In the past Wuwei was called Liangzhou. It was an important post on the ancient Silk Road.

Confucian Temple
Confucian Temple is known also as the Wenmiao Temple in Chinese,is a complex of structures built in palace style in 1439 during the Ming Dynasty.

Han Tombs
Han Tomb is located inside the Leitai Park, Wuwei City. It is a large tomb built with brick and stone in the late years (186-219) of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

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