Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road

Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road

Author: Priscilla Galloway

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780329743376

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Provides accounts of journeys undertaken by three men along the Silk Road, including seventh-century Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan, and thirteenth-century merchant Marco Polo.


Night Train to Turkistan

Night Train to Turkistan

Author: Stuart Stevens

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9780871131904

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The first account of travel in Chinese Turkistan, closed to foreigners since 1949, shows a world where bureaucratic hazards often loom larger than geographical ones. First serial to Esquire.


Extremes Along the Silk Road

Extremes Along the Silk Road

Author: Nick Middleton

Publisher: John Murray Pubs Limited

Published: 2006-05-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 9780719567209

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The Silk Road is the fabled route that cuts through one of the most extraordinary tracts of land on this planet. A vast region separating China from the Mediterranean, it rates as one of the least hospitable on Earth – a succession of hostile deserts and towering mountain ranges, a harsh terrain of howling winds, searing heat and blistering cold. No stranger to unforgiving territory, Nick Middleton follows in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and Marco Polo overland from China to Istanbul, surviving as they did the life-sapping Gobi desert, the icy passes of high altitude Tibet, and the great Steppes of Turkmenistan, and encounters those who eke out existences there today. Nick's great gift as an adventure writer is to weave together the personal experience of ridiculous endurance - from sleeping on steaming rocks in the middle of a sub-zero desert to eating the most dubiously-cooked local delicacies - with the bigger picture of our planet and its peoples.


Journeys on the Silk Road

Journeys on the Silk Road

Author: Joyce Morgan

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2012-08-22

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0762787333

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When a Chinese monk broke into a hidden cave in 1900, he uncovered one of the world’s great literary secrets: a time capsule from the ancient Silk Road. Inside, scrolls were piled from floor to ceiling, undisturbed for a thousand years. The gem within was the Diamond Sutra of AD 868. This key Buddhist teaching, made 500 years before Gutenberg inked his press, is the world’s oldest printed book. The Silk Road once linked China with the Mediterranean. It conveyed merchants, pilgrims and ideas. But its cultures and oases were swallowed by shifting sands. Central to the Silk Road’s rediscovery was a man named Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born scholar and archaeologist employed by the British service. Undaunted by the vast Gobi Desert, Stein crossed thousands of desolate miles with his fox terrier Dash. Stein met the Chinese monk and secured the Diamond Sutra and much more. The scroll’s journey—by camel through arid desert, by boat to London’s curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War II—merges an explorer’s adventures, political intrigue, and continued controversy. The Diamond Sutra has inspired Jack Kerouac and the Dalai Lama. Its journey has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the survival of the Silk Road’s greatest treasure is testament to the endurance of the written word.


Foreign Devils on the Silk Road

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road

Author: Peter Hopkirk

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9780192802118

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The Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China, was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold, and ivory, as well as revolutionary new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline. The traffic slowed, the merchants left, and finally its towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities filled with treasurees and guarded by demons. In the early years of the 20th century, foreign explorers began to investigate these legends, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures, and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese.


Adventures in Ancient China

Adventures in Ancient China

Author: Linda Bailey

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781553374534

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Join the Binkertons, twins Josh and Emma and their little sister, Libby, as they return to the Good Times Travel Agency -- and end up knee-deep in an ancient Chinese rice paddy! Adventures in Ancient China is an engaging mix of adventure and historical information about life in China during first century A.D. Kids will learn about Chinese society, inventions, medicine, the Silk Road, the Great Wall, nomadic warriors and much more. They'll love the book's contemporary comic-book look, while parents, teachers and librarians will appreciate the well-researched story line and solid factual information.


The Silk Road

The Silk Road

Author: Kathy Ceceri

Publisher: Nomad Press

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1619300648

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From Roman times until the Age of Exploration, the Silk Road carried goods and ideas across Central Asia between two major centers of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea and China. In The Silk Road: Explore the World’s Most Famous Trade Route, readers ages 9–12 will learn about the history, geography, culture, and people of the Silk Road region. Marco Polo was just one of many who set out on the Silk Road in search of wealth, power, or knowledge. These adventurers braved vast deserts, towering mountain peaks, warring tribes, and marauding bandits. Silk garments, wool rugs, and fine glass were the prizes for those who survived the trip. Activities using everyday materials bring the Silk Road to life. Young readers will see how ideas in math, science, religion, and art were spread by travelers along with the treasures they found. The Silk Road takes readers on an exciting, interactive adventure to a faraway place and celebrates its important role in human history and development. .


Empires of the Silk Road

Empires of the Silk Road

Author: Christopher I. Beckwith

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-03-16

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13: 1400829941

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An epic account of the rise and fall of the Silk Road empires The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols. In addition, he explains why the heartland of Central Eurasia led the world economically, scientifically, and artistically for many centuries despite invasions by Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and others. In retelling the story of the Old World from the perspective of Central Eurasia, Beckwith provides a new understanding of the internal and external dynamics of the Central Eurasian states and shows how their people repeatedly revolutionized Eurasian civilization. Beckwith recounts the Indo-Europeans' migration out of Central Eurasia, their mixture with local peoples, and the resulting development of the Graeco-Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; he details the basis for the thriving economy of premodern Central Eurasia, the economy's disintegration following the region's partition by the Chinese and Russians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the damaging of Central Eurasian culture by Modernism; and he discusses the significance for world history of the partial reemergence of Central Eurasian nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Empires of the Silk Road places Central Eurasia within a world historical framework and demonstrates why the region is central to understanding the history of civilization.


Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road

Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road

Author: Priscilla Galloway

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781554511976

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The fabled Silk Road conjures up the sights, smells and sounds of faraway lands: great and diverse cultures separated by deserts sands or windswept mountain passes. But traveling the Silk Road took years, often through bleak and rugged country with few inhabitants. Those who set out fought off bandits, battled starvation and survived treacherous storms. Adventures introduces readers to three great historical figures: Chinese Buddhist Xuanzang’s (travels 629 – 645AD), 16-year epic journey from China to India and back is the only source of information we have for huge chunks of the history and geography of this time. His successful search for Buddhist scriptures changed the course of two great nations and he remains an enduring hero of folklore. Mongolian Genghis Khan (war travels 1201 – 1227), bred from infancy to be a warrior, brought the Mongol clans together into a fighting nation to rule the Silk Road and establish the greatest empire the world had seen. Italian merchant Marco Polo (travels 1271 – 1295) journeyed through China for 24 years. His journeys changed the way Europe saw the world beyond its borders. His book even inspired Columbus to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of China. Stunning photographs and art depicting the ancient routes and peoples bring the stories to life. Maps, sidebars and an afterword that highlights the story of the Silk Road are also featured. In the end we too come to know the lands the three travelers explored, and how they were greeted—or cheated—by the folks along the way.


Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan

Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan

Author: Hildi Kang

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-09-08

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1933718625

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Chengli is an orphaned errand boy who lives in Chang'an China in 630 A.D. His mother has died from illness and his father is presumed dead after disappearing into the desert when Chengli was a baby. Now thirteen, Chengli feels ready for independence. He is drawn to the desert, beckoned by the howling of strange winds and the hope of learning something about his father--who he was and how he died. Chengli joins a caravan to travel down the merchant route known as the Silk Road, but it is a dangerous life, as his father knew. The desert is harsh, and there are many bandits--bandits interested in Chengli's caravan because a princess, her servants, and royal guards are traveling with them. But the desert is full of amazing places and life-changing experiences, as the feisty princess learns the meaning of friendship and Chengli learns the heroism of which he is capable.