Why silk road built

Sometimes it is good to look back at history to find inspiration for the future. With the New Silk Road, China is changing the world of logistic. Just as the ancient Silk Road once brought goods and ideas between the East and the West, new routes over land and by sea are again connecting Asia with Europe and beyond.

It used to be called One Belt One Road. In daily use, however, it is called by perhaps its most beautiful name: The New Silk Road. It is a reference to the ancient merchant route known as the Silk Road which emerged about 2, years ago, as the demand for Chinese silk increased in the West. From the former Chinese capital Xian, merchants travelled through central Asia, passing by legendary towns such as Samarkand, on their way to the markets in the cities of Middle East and Southern Europe.

Besides bringing goods between the East and the West, the trade on the Silk Road also stimulated the exchange of ideas, science and culture. Panama is also participating in the initiative and there are initiatives to include more parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Construction projects in more than 60 countries are planned or already taking place and China has closed deals with more than countries as well as 29 international organizations.

As more and more countries are participating, the project continues to grow, and the total extent of the New Silk Road is still to be seen. The new trade routes are expected to be a game changer for global logistic flows — and the effects are already being noticed.

Since January goods are being transported by train on the new rail Silk Road between China and Europe. In some cases, these new towns have been developed so quickly that they still cannot be found on most printed maps. Yet, they are inhabited by thousands of people. And soon it might be as many as ,, as in the case with the new city Nurkent which is being developed around Khorgos on the Chinese-Kazakhstan border.

Khorgos Gateway is one of the main logistical key-points on the New Silk Road where the total number of handled containers per year is expected to surpass , already Not too far from Khorgos lies the sleepy town of Usharal. Life is about to change dramatically here too. To protect themselves, traders joined together in caravan s with camels or other pack animals.

Over time, large inns called caravanserai s cropped up to house travelling merchants. Few people traveled the entire route, giving rise to a host of middlemen and trading posts along the way. An abundance of goods traveled along the Silk Road. Merchants carried silk from China to Europe, where it dressed royalty and wealthy patrons. Other favorite commodities from Asia included jade and other precious stones, porcelain, tea, and spices.

In exchange, horses, glassware, textile s, and manufactured goods traveled eastward. Born into a family of wealthy merchants in Venice, Italy, Marco traveled with his father to China then Cathay when he was just 17 years of age.

Upon his return, Marco Polo wrote about his adventures, making him—and the routes he traveled—famous. It is hard to overstate the importance of the Silk Road on history. Religion and ideas spread along the Silk Road just as fluidly as goods. Towns along the route grew into multicultural cities.

The exchange of information gave rise to new technologies and innovations that would change the world.

The horses introduced to China contributed to the might of the Mongol Empire, while gunpowder from China changed the very nature of war in Europe and beyond. Diseases also traveled along the Silk Road. Some research suggests that the Black Death , which devastated Europe in the late s C. The Age of Exploration gave rise to faster routes between the East and West, but parts of the Silk Road continued to be critical pathways among varied cultures.

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