Ancient background

　　The silk road is the starting from the ancient Chinese, connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, the ancient land trade routes, the first is the role of transportation in ancient Chinese produced silk, porcelain and other commodities, and later became the main road for communication in such aspects as economy, politics, culture and so on between the East and the West
　　In 1877, Richthofen, a German geologist and geographer, wrote in his book China，把"From 114 B. C. to 127 ad, the western regional traffic route, with silk trade as the medium between China and Central Asia, China and India"Named"The Silk Road"，The term was quickly accepted by academics and the public and was formally used. Later, the German historian German in a book published in early twentieth Century, the "Chinese and Syria ancient Silk Road", according to the newly discovered archaeological data, further the silk road extends to the west Mediterranean and Asia Minor, the connotation of the Silk Road, which is the ancient China through Central Asia to channel South and West Asia, North Africa and Europe land trade association.
　　From the mode of transportation, the silk road is mainly divided into the land Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road。
　　The Silk Road on land, refers to the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 8 BC) Han Wudi sent Zhang Qian to the western regions open to the capital city of Changan (now Xi'an) as the starting point, the Eastern Han Dynasty to the capital of Luoyang (now Henan Luoyang) as the starting point, through Liangzhou, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, Guazhou, Central Asian countries, A Fu Khan, Iran Syria, Iraq, and reached the Mediterranean to Rome as the end point, a total length of 6440 km. This road is considered to be the intersection of ancient Eastern and Western civilizations that link Asia and Europe, and silk is the most representative of the goods.
　　The maritime Silk Road refers to ancient China's economic and cultural exchanges with other parts of the world. More than 2000 years ago, a maritime Silk Road, with China's Xuwen port and Hepu port as its starting point, achieved a worldwide trading network. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a maritime route called "Guangzhou sea Yi Road" on the southeast coast of China, which was the earliest name of the maritime Silk Road in china.