The Silk Road：Eternal Avenue for Open Exchange

Qin Dahe

Academician of Chinese Academy

of Sciences

Vice President of China Association

for Science and Technology

Stretching across 11 time zones， Eurasia is the center of the world for thousands of years with an area of about 50 million square kilometers. The Silk Road， an ancient transportation network connecting the Eurasia， has been exploited and trekked by many people and mingled and inherited a good many civilizations in the history of thousands of years.

The concept of the Silk Road has been expanding constantly when it was put forward in China published in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen， a German geographer. In the territory of China， there are four recognized Silk Roads， i.e. the Silk Road of Oasis in Han and Tang Dynasties stretching from Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions， the Silk Road of Grassland in northern China， the Southern the Silk Road， the main thoroughfare of Eurasia at the end of Yuan Dynasty， and Maritime the Silk Road formed since Song Dynasty. As the transportation network for long-distance commercial trade and cultural exchange， the Silk Road is not a definite route， but shows the open mindedness to another civilization. It is the harbinger and prelude of global age， and is not inferior to the history of circumnavigation and Great Geographical Discoveries in the contribution to the East-West mutual discovery.

In the 1st century BC， as the cavalry developed fast， empires with unprecedented territories had emerged in Rome， Persia and China almost in the same period， thus exchange between Eurasia civilizations was inevitable， and the Silk Road was waiting for the arrival of exploiters. The capital of Han Dynasty was Chang'an. In 138 BC， Zhang Qian， shouldering holy national missions， kept his eyes beyond the Great Wall， and served as an envoy to the Western Regions for twice and had going through all kinds of hardships so that China's influence was spread to the east and west of Pamirs and the south and north of Tianshan Mountain for the first time. Discovery and opening of the Silk Road had epoch-making significance， increasingly strengthened the ties between Xinjiang and mainland， and had a profound impact on resisting foreign aggression and expanding the living space. The year that Zhang Qian served as an envoy to the Western Regions was called "the First Year of the Silk Road" by the historian in later ages.

Sima Qian praised that Zhang Qian had the merit in exploiting the Western Regions， which had not only geographical significance， but also cultural significance. Along the Silk Road， many civilizations， such as Mesopotamian civilization， Egyptian civilization， Indus civilization， Chinese civilization， etc. had emerged， China's silk， chinaware， paper， smelting technique， karez technique， etc. propagated westward and sugaring technique， glassmaking technique， as well as music， dance， etc. in Western Regions were introduced to the East， Buddhism， Islam， Nestorianism， Zoroastrianism， Manichaeism and other extraterritorial religions swarmed into China， crops， animals， spices， minerals， etc. with regional characteristics were introduced mutually， and astronomy， mathematics， medicine， etc. were learned from each other. With westerners' good imagination on gorgeous， rich， and mysterious China， the Silk Road had a significant role in promoting the political， cultural and economic communication of Eurasia， and had formed a powerful current of constant blend of material civilization and spiritual civilization stretch over thousand of years. In June 2014， the 38th World Heritage Convention announced that "the Silk Road： the initial segment and the Tianshan corridor road network" submitted jointly by China， Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was included in The World Heritage List.

China after the reform and opening-up has been the world's second largest economy， providing an important opportunity for the revival of the Silk Road. Xi Jinping， the general secretary had put forward the strategic concepts of "the Silk Road economic belt" and "Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century， and emphasized that the countries concerned shall build a win-win "community of interest" and "community of destiny" of common development and prosperity. With these concepts， an economic development zone with the total population of nearly 3 billion on the basis of the ancient Silk Road will be formed， which connects the prosperous Asia-Pacific economic circle in the east and the developed European economic circle in the west， and re-coagulates the Silk Road into a whole， and is the world's most potential economic corridor. It expresses the determination of China in seeking openness， and emblemizes that the new era of the Silk Road dominated by China is coming.