Interesting Facts About Ancient

China Silk Road For Kids

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silk-road-for-kids/

In the 3rd Century B.C., Chinese silk fabrics were beginning to find

their way throughout the whole of Asia, and were transported overland

to the west, and by sea to Japan, in those long itineraries known as

the silk roads.

Interesting Facts #1 When was the term "Silk Road" invented?

The term “Silk Road” didn’t exist at the time of the Silk Road

trade and there was no single route across Central Asia. The peoples

living along different trade routes never referred to any particular

route as the “Silk Road.” They referred to the different sections

of the road as the “Road to Samarkand” (or whatever the next major

city was). They did call the different routes around the Taklamakan

either the “northern” or “southern” route. In 1877, Baron

Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833-1905), a prominent geographer and the

uncle of the World War I flying ace, produced a five-volume map of

China. One map showed a single line connecting Europe and China,

which he called the “Silk Road,” and the name stuck.

Interesting Facts #2 What goods were traded on the Silk Road?

Silk wasn’t the only good traded on these routes. Metals, spices,

medicines, glass, leather goods, and paper all moved across Eurasia.

Paper became the primary writing material for all of Eurasia, and

surely had a far greater impact on human history than silk, which was

used primarily for garments. Invented during the second century BCE,

paper moved out of China, first into the Islamic world in the eighth

century, and reached Europe via its Islamic portals in Sicily and

Spain. People north of the Alps learned to make their own paper only

in the late fourteenth century.

Interesting Facts #3 How did they travel?

Merchants and tradesmen traveled in large caravans. They would have

many guards with them. Traveling in a big group like a caravan helped

in defending from bandits. Camels were popular animals for transport

because much of the road was through dry and harsh land.

It was over 4,000 miles long.

Marco Polo traveled to China along the Silk Road.

Not all that was traded along the Silk Road was good. It is

thought that the bubonic plague, or Black Death, traveled to

Europe from the Silk Road.

Very few merchants traveled along the entire route. Goods were

traded at many cities and trade posts along the way.

There wasn't just one route, but many routes. Some were

shorter, but more dangerous. Others took longer, but were

safer.

Interesting Facts #4 Which countries did the Silk Road

connect?

The Silk Road connected China with the Iranian world, specifically

the city of Samarkand (in today’s Uzbekistan) and the surrounding

communities. This was the homeland of the Sogdians, who spoke an

Iranian language called Sogdian, and many observed the teachings of

the ancient Iranian teacher Zarathustra (ca. 1000 B.C.E., called

Zoroaster in Greek), who taught that truth-telling was the paramount

virtue. Some of the most exciting finds in the past decade have been

the tombs of Sogdian leaders found in the main cities of interior

China. The most common long-distance travelers, in fact, were the

Sogdians who lived in and around modern-day Samarkand in today’s

Uzbekistan.

Interesting Facts #5 Did the Silk Road connect China and

Rome?

No. At least there was no direct traffic during the years of the

Roman Empire that we know of. Romans didn’t exchange their gold

coins directly for Chinese silk. The earliest Roman gold coins found

in China — so far only 48 gold coins (many are fakes) have been

discovered after a century of intense investigations — are Byzantine

solidus coins dated to the sixth century, several centuries after the

capital shifted from Rome to Constantinople (modern Istanbul).

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