Maritime Silk Road

Maritime Silk Road

The ocean is the cradle of life. More than two thousand years ago, the "Maritime Silk Road" was gradually formed across the vast sea, connecting China and the rest of the world.

Maritime Silk Road, also known as ceramic road, is an extension of the Silk Road on land. Formed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the formation of the main reason is that most of the southeast coast of China is mountain, and internal contact is not easy. Therefore, many people have actively developed to the sea since ancient times. As the important passage of ancient Chinese foreign trade, the Maritime Silk Road had already appeared in the Qin and Han dynasties of China. It was most prosperous during the Tang and Song dynasties. The route was: China brought the production of silk, ceramics, spices, tea and other goods to Europe, other Asian and African countries, and European businessmen would take wool, ivory, etc. to China through this road.The Maritime Silk Road is a general term for all the passageways between China and the West. Actually, it is not the only way. In addition to land transportation, there is also a route across the sea to reach the West, which is called the maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road not only transported silk, but also transported porcelain, sugar, hardware, and other imported goods, like spices, herbs.Because this route transported different kinds of goods, there are many other names. With the spices import from Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia, this route is also known as the "spice road."

From the Qin dynasty to the Ming dynasty, the maritime Silk Road has a long history.As the starting point of medieval "Maritime Silk Road", Quanzhou occupied an important historical position in the East-West civilized exchanges. In Song and Yuan Dynasties, Quanzhou's maritime trade was unprecedented prosperous, and it was called as "the first port of the East" by Marco – Baltic. At that time, Quanzhou has become a global economic and cultural center.Also,my hometown--Guangzhou, has a long and profound marine culture.From the 430s, Guangzhou has become the main port of the Maritime Silk Road. In Tang and Song Dynasties, Guangzhou has

become the largest port in China and the leading Oriental port city in the world. The route that started from Guangzhou, and through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, arrived in the Persian Gulf, was the world's longest ocean routes. It is one of the most important "maritime Silk Road" cities of China, and it like a bright pearl, shining in China's coastline.The culture of the Maritime Silk Road has a long history. The major goods China export to the rest of the world, from silk to porcelain and tea, had formed a sustained global trend of the Oriental civilization. Through the Maritime Silk Road, China also spread our national craft and Confucian thought, effecting the countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road and around Europe to some extent, and even setting off the "China fever."

As the times change, the maritime Silk Road came to an end after the Opium War of 1842, and the legacy is a mystery. Some scholars generally believe that Zheng He's voyages made a more thorough and penetrating "maritime Silk Road" connect between China and the world, which is one of the important basic for the existence of the maritime Silk Road in history.

History proves that the collision and exchange of different cultures, brought by the Maritime Silk Road, has promoted the progress and development of the world. Therefore, international vision of open communication had become the ideological consensus of the world's development. Nowadays, China is starting a major strategy for building a 21st century maritime Silk Road with ASEAN and the rest of the world. The concepts of Marine economy,harmony and common prosperity, and

multi-symbiotic wishes, will provide a strong historical basis for national development strategies once again. Although it experienced a decline, it was still so tall. Although it was banned by the corrupt Empire of the Qing Dynasty, and was forced to close the door, it still stubbornly stays down. We cannot change the history, the only thing we can do is to make the trade of Maritime Silk Road revival and prosper again.