Opening of the Silk Road
The "Silk Road" originated during the 1st century BC, following efforts by the Yuezhi and Xiongnu in the Tarim Basin to consolidate a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were a "complex network of trade routes" that gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture.
Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Persia, Europe and Arabia. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes.
Inspired by true events, "The Children of the Silk Road" tells how a
young Englishman, George Hogg came to lead sixty orphaned boys on an
extraordinary journey of almost a thousand perilous miles across the
snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian
desert. And of how, in doing so, he came to understand the true meaning
of courage.
