The Silk Road丝绸之路演讲稿

The Silk Road

Ancient trade route that linked China with Europe.

Originally a caravan route and used from с 100 BC, the 4,000-mi (6,400-km) road started in Xi'an, China, followed the Great Wall to the northwest, climbed the Pamir Mtns., crossed Afghanistan, and went on to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where goods were taken by boat to Rome. Silk was carried westward, while wool, gold, and silver were carried eastward. With the fall of Rome, the route became unsafe; it was revived under the Mongols, and Marco Polo used it in the 13th century.

The Silk Road

Maybe you have heard about the Silk Road or read it yourself long before so that you have already understood the constantly changing and endless barren desert as well as its quietness. Maybe you have met it in the numerous words before. Haven’t you understood its brilliance hidden in the relics on the ancient route left to us by our ancestors that has gone through the test of over 2000 years of trials and hardships? And then do you still want to listen to the bells on the camels that have been pleasant to your ears for years in and out along this historical route that goes through Asia and Europe and maintains the civilization of east and west and appreciate the flourishment and continuous flow on the broad ancient route? Well, let’s read the Silk Road in the virtual world built by the net technology!

A 10,000-li silver ribbon, starting at Chang’an (Xi’an today), the ancient capital of China, and ending at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, links up fields, deserts, grasslands, and mountains. This is the Silk Road famed in world history, the first thoroughfare that links up China with the West.

2000 ago, our ancestors opened up a great road--the Silk Road.

China was the first country in the world to breed silkworms and produce silk. The Silk Road was first conceived during the Zhou and Qin dynasties. From 138--139B.C., Zhang Qian, outstanding Western Han diplomat and traveler, first “blazed a trail”in the West, and the Silk Road was formally inaugurated as China’s “national road”linking up the east and west. Holding a tasseled staff and “driving enormous herds of sheep and cattle and bringing quantities of golden coins and rolls of silk,”Zhang Qian set out with a retune of 100 and 300 in two trips from Chang’an and reached Loulan (around Roujiang today), Yuli, Quick (Kula today), Shula (Kashi today), Yutan (Hotan today) and Wunsun (the Ill River valley today), as well as Dayuan, Kanju, kand Dayuezhi, now in Xinjiang and the Amu-Darya River valley in Central Asia. His assistant even went as far as Ansi (Iran) and Xindu (India) for friendly visits. In return, envoys from these countries also visited China, and merchants were continually on the way.

In 73 AD, Ban Zhao embarked on a mission to the western region with a 36-man retinue, ensuring the smooth operation of the Silk Road which had once been blocked by war. His deputy Gan Ying reached Daqin (ancient Rome) and toured the Persian Gulf (Arabic Gulf), extending the Silk Road.

The ancient Silk Road linked Chinese culture with that of India, Greece, Rome and Persian from one century to the other, carried the great Chinese inventions of silk, gunpowder, papermaking and printing to the West and brought Buddhism, Nestorianism, and Islam and their related arts and cultures into China. From time immemorial, the Silk Road has been a route of friendly intercourse between the Chinese and foreign people.

Chinese silk, ironware, gold and platinum, bronze mirrors, lacquer and bamboo wares, drugs and