The Silk Road is about capitalists and traders and commerce.The Chinese traded with the Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines and the Phoneicians, as early as 250BC. Add to this the Indian continent and Africa and it becomes even more interesting.Later in history the road became the artery for all of Central Asia linking China, India, Central Asia, Turkey and Europe.
Marco Polo travelled the route in the 12th century. (Picking up noodles (spaghetti) along the way and, as they say, the rest is history.)
The area was lawless, dominated by tribal interests ruled by cruel and vicious Khanates.
The route for all the camel trains was to leave markets of Xian and navigate the Chinese deserts, the Gobi to the North and the Taklakamen desert to the South.
The northern route was favored taking 6 months to travel from Xian to Kashgar
. Later in time a southern route emerged.
The camel trains were large somtimes up to 300 camels. The camel trains were financed by traders and financiers. The train had a master being an experienced and seasoned campaigner able to oversee the safe passage of the goods and chattels on a perilous journey, navigating tribal boundaries, bandits and thieves. Levies were paid at various places similar to customs duties guaranteeing safe passage. Trains travelled various distances, short hauls, others longer journeys.
All roads lead to Kashgar (Kashi)
Kashgar is situated in the Extreme Western corner of modern China, encircled by the snow covered ranges of the Tian Shin to the West, Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains to the south and South West. All impassable in winter.
From Kashgar the trains either headed South to India on what is still known as the Korakorum Highway leading to modern Pakistan and onto India and Africa, or heading West, crossing the Tian Shin Mountains and onto the vast plains of Central Asia leading to Samarkan, Bukhara and Merv, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey.
The area is inhospitable desert country with temparatures rising to 40c in summer and minus 30c in winter. Vicious winds are common creating sa
nd storms. There is very little water in this land hence the trains followed the the mountains where oasis style towns flourished servicing the camel trains with shelter, food and water.
The "Silk Road" has many routes leading all over Asia. Today's highways follow the same routes. We head straight to Kashgar.
The city has a long history, conquered by Alexander the Great, later by the Persians who colonised the deserts of Central Asia prior to the Mongols in the 12th-14th century.
At the end of the Mongol rule it became a Khanate in the late 19th century annexed by Russia for a short spell until an agreement with the British.
In the period of the Great Game (the British believed that Russia would mount an attack on India along the Karakorum Highway in the period of the Napoleonic wars), the area came under Chinese rule with Mao's communist centralised regime. The area is now firmly a part of China and is treated as the last frontier. There is tribal unr
est in the region due to the modernisation of the City and the influx of Han immigrants sponsored by the central government.
We are aware that the area will be even more sensitive due to the upheavals of 40 million displaced persons in Pakistan due to the floods. We will tread very carefully.
I write this on the Gold Coast prior to my departure. When we were last in China all social sites were banned. Therefore I wanted to get some
information to you.
I leave on Monday the 30th August for Kashgar. Meet Citt on the 1st September enroute in Urumqui airport.
My thanks to the Prestons for the Chinese train schedules, booking forms and menu cards. To Ron for the great folio society book on the Silk Road for research purposes. Pam for her encouragement and enthusiasm. You my friends for always being there.
Malcolm
Follow us on the Silk Road. Kashgar to Xian.
Images from our journey Silk Road 2008. Bukhara Uzbekistan.
