We all know that the Silk Road was an ancient trade route. But it's just as vital today as it was thousands of years ago. China's President Xi Jinping is spending billions. What is he doing? View our show to find out more or you can read the full blog post here. https://blog.laowaicareer.com/modern-silk-road-china-growing-key-player-trade/

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2. History of the Silk Road
Communication routes
and paths of trade have
always crisscrossed
Eurasia, which slowly
linked up to form the Silk
Road. These are routed
across both land and sea
along which not only silk
but many other products
were exchanged.

3. These vast networks didn’t just carry merchandise
and precious commodities but also the constant
mixing and movement of different populations aided
in the transmission of ideas, knowledge, belief and
culture. This formed such a profound impact on the
civilization and history of the Eurasian people.

4. Trade was a major attraction for the travelers along
the Silk Road, but the cultural, and intellectual
exchange majorly contributed to the development of
cultural and educational hubs. Along the lengths of
these routes, art, craft, literature, science, and
technology were shared and disseminated into
societies.

5. Silk Production & Trade
Silk, a textile woven from
the protein fiber usually
produced by silkworms to
make its cocoon is of
ancient Chinese origin,
developed around 2,700
BC.

6. Despite the Chinese monopoly on Silk production, it
wasn’t restricted to the Chinese empire but was used
as a diplomatic gift and extensively traded initially
with its immediate neighbors before becoming one of
the chief Chinese products under the Han Dynasty
(206 BC-220 AD).

7. During the first Century, Silk was introduced into the
Roman Empire where it grew very popular and was
considered an exotic luxury. Throughout the Middle
Ages, silk’s popularity continued, and the
manufacturing of silk clothes was governed by
Byzantine regulations which emphasized its
importance not only as an essential royal fabric.

8. Silk production knowledge becomes very valuable and
despite Chinese emperor’s efforts to keep it as a
closely guarded secret, eventually it did spread
beyond China to India and Japan, then to the Persian
Empire before finally reaching the West in the 6th
Century AD.

9. A diverse route and cargo beyond silk.

10. Even with silk being at the center of the earliest
catalysts for trade routes across Central Asia, it was
just but one of the many products traded between
the west and east. Goods ranged from spices, textiles,
vegetables, fruits, and grain to woodwork, artwork,
animal hides, precious stones, and much more.

11. The merchants had a wide choice of different routes
going through several regions of the Eastern Europe,
Central Asia, Middle East, and the Far East.
Additionally, the traders had maritime routes for
transporting goods from China and South East Asia via
the Indian Ocean to India, the Near East, and Africa.

12. Silk Road Dialouge

13. For the material exchange to take place, cultural
interaction was vital, and merchants who ventured
onto the Silk Roads were able to engage in cultural
and intellectual exchange. One of the most famous
technical advances that have been propagated
worldwide by the Silk Road includes paper making
techniques, as well as printing press development.

14. General Zhang Qian, the man often credited with
founding Silk Roads which opened up the first route
from China to the West in the 2nd Century, was more
on a diplomatic mission than a trading expedition.

15. The Modern Silk Road

16. The New Silk Roads are different from the historic
trade routes. The historical ones majorly served as
connectors for cultural exchange and trade but was
less politically significant. On the other hand, the New
Silk Road is quite an obvious expression of China’s
power ambition in the 21st Century.

17. In essence, this means that China is trying to
demonstrate how ready it is to shoulder the
responsibilities in the development of the region by
putting in $40 billion Silk Road fund and also
$50billion for the Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank.

18. President Xi’s Big Idea

19. The New Silk Road is set to become the largest
program of economic diplomacy since the US-led
Marshall Plan for postwar reconstruction in Europe
which will cover dozens of countries with the
population totaling to 3 billion people. This scale
demonstrates huge ambition but even against the
rising strength of China’s military and the backdrop of
a slowing economy.

20. The “One Belt, One Road” initiative is a land route
linking central Asia, Russia, and Europe. With a
dramatic increase in trade between China and other
five neighboring Asian states such as Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,
China is on the frontline in building the roads and
pipelines necessarily for smooth access to the
resources it needs for the development.

21. Bonus
Click on the link below to read the full blog post!
https://blog.laowaicareer.com/modern-silk-road-china-
growing-key-player-trade/

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