Explorers on the Silk Road: The Silk Road in their eyes

This is not a real road. People always have different opinions on its starting and ending points. Though it has been covered by aged yellow sand， it wins a poetic name， Silk Road. In thousands of years， people on this road never cease their steps to get to the countries on the other side or to seek traces of history. Among them， archaeologists， painters and even ordinary tourists are included. No matter whomever they are， understanding of this mysterious road has been much clarified gradually because of their appearance.

History tracker of the Silk Road： Li Kai

Historical site of ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang has become an unsolved millennial myth in the world due to the disappearance of words. Since 1970s， Li Kai， historical scholar of Silk Road in Xinjiang， has started to seek the historical sites that might be covered under folk villages， plateaus and deserts. He walked through every corner of the ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang， with a walking distance far exceeding ten thousand kilometers. Among all his researches， he attached great importance to the historical alteration and site distribution of Shanxi-Gansu segment， Tarim Basin segment and Central Asia segment on Silk Road. In his whole life， he has published academic works about Silk Road with total number reaching to nearly ten million.

Within the territory of Aksu， there is an unknown desert where used to be the prosperous land of Yutou Country. To figure out the ancient Yutou Country， Li Kai went to this desert for several dozen times and he deserves the reputation of a live map of it. Once in an exploration， he accidentally found some pottery shards scattered in sand， then he removed the sand and found a complete pottery jar. Totally， he found 24 pottery jars there. After he reported his surprising findings to the public， it aroused attention and interests of various scholars of Silk Road.

To research history of Silk Road， the first thing is to know those ancient words. Li Kai feels especially regret that more than 20 kinds of Xinjiang characters cannot be decoded， for they have been lost in the long history. However， he spared no effort in seeking these meaningful characters from the folk and ancient sites to make further research on them. Li Kai said： “I cannot ignore any village. I can speak Uighur well， so I don’t need any translator. Old people in villages have many Chagatai Khan books. When they read it to me， I would write down， and then I can understand such language. Later， I put most of my energy into studying ancient characters.” Li Kai treats these characters he discovered as treasures. He took pictures for them， looked up them in all kinds of books and dictionaries and got information by asking experts and scholars. Later， he wrote 10 serial books of Asian Exploration， including Lost in Western Regions for 750 Days， Silk Road Exploration and so on.

Li Kai said： “After retirement， I plan to write Research on Culture of Ancient Qiang by virtue of ancient Xinjiang characters and archaeological materials in Gansu and Shanxi. This is my final objective. On the land from Shaanxi to Qinghai of Gansu， southern foot of Mountain Tianshan， and then to Afghanistan， most activities were conducted by ancient Qiang people. My purpose of studying Qiang is to record the cultural exchange and national amalgamation happened in the west on the Silk Road in my book. If I could finish this， my life would be regretless.”

Painting along the Silk Road―Arabian countries in the eyes of Chinese paintress

Labels written with Arab countries “Tunisia， Yemen， Jordan， Syria…”are tagged one by one on small bags of a woven bag which is made by hand and full of Bedouins characteristics. Each bag is filled with materials， photos and sketches of countries labeled correspondingly.

This is the studio of Chinese paintress， Yang Mingwei， who is 72 years old. It’s a simple but clean room， covering an area of over ten square meters. You can easily find traces of Arab countries here： a short machete of Yemen lying on the desk at the entrance， Syrian Masjid wall painting hanging on the wall， her paintings of all sizes piled up in the corner； a shelf with two layers is hung on the wall， on which one layer holds her diaries kept during those years when she traveled in Arab countries and documents about art exhibitions placed according to date， and the other layer holds nearly twenty volumes of paintings and photos classified by countries.

Standing by the desk near the window， this old lady who is in her seventies over murmured： “I love Arab so much. When I smell it， I know we are a family.”

Arab countries are mostly located in West Asia and North Africa. More than 2000 years ago， the Silk Road used to be the link of friendship between China and Arab countries， as well as the common historical memory of both countries， which brought peace and prosperity to both countries.

Yang Mingwei used to be a student of PLA Foreign Language University and majored in Arabic. Since 1987， she has been to Arab countries for many times alone， with her tour route passing from Mesopotamia to Mediterranean and from the Sahara to the southernmost of Arabian Peninsula. During her journey， Yang Mingwei created nearly a thousand paintings and nearly ten thousand material pictures and photos， involving various contents such as Arabian historical sites， buildings and masjids， women working in fields and girls on streets， traditional foods like date palm and grape and even embroidery and slippers.

No matter for people who are rich or poor， living in city or living in the countryside， “they are generous， hospitable， modesty and polite. They are especially faithful because of sincere religious belief.” Yang Mingwei describes Arabians like this. “The qualities of them are due to their belief， but that’s also the essence of Arabians.”

As a Chinese woman， she not only can speak fluent Arabic， but also knows about the local customs and is good at painting， which win her much popular in Arab countries.

She said it happened many times that when she was taking bus in villages or towns， local people would come to her in group with curiosity， talk with her fervidly and look her paintings with highly praise. After reaching to the destination， all the people would invite her to their homes. Dates were waiting for her in a long row.

Thus， she has the opportunity to taste delicacies of all Arab countries. “Date palm in Tunisia is crystal bright and tasty； pancakes in Yemen are also very delicious， which is said can be divided in over 30 categories； Syria is the richest place for materials and all kinds of pickles as well as olive taste very good.”

Frequently solo journey may also be dangerous sometimes. But thanks to nice Arabians， she could always head off a danger.

In 1980s when she was working in Iraq， once she and another colleague drove to Karbala， but were lost in the local place. Then they asked a young man to figure out the direction. The young man drove a motor in front of them to guide them till they reached the destination， but he refused to be paid for the long distance of 90 kilometers and just asked to take a photo with them as the reward.

During the long-term contact with Arabians， Yang Mingwei is also influenced by them. “I feel comfortable and at ease when I stay together with them. Besides， I share the same opinion with them on treating guests. Regardless of your status and class， as long as you are respectable， I will treat you heart to heart as a friend to help you without asking any reward”.

A traveler on the Silk Road： Ma Zhongxin

Silk Road never feels lonely for plenty of adventurers. Those adventurers walk along the ancient road to track traces of predecessors again and again. Ma Zhongxin is one of them. He has nine experiences of exploring the Silk Road.

“I was born in Lanzhou and grew up there too. Yellow river in Lanzhou would freeze in winter. When I was a kid， I always leaned against my father and ate date cake bought from the foot of Baita Mountain.” Because of the deep emotion of Lanzhou in Gansu， Ma Zhongxin feels the same to the Silk Road.

He said the segment of Silk Road from Lanzhou to Xinjiang is the best routine for Chinese tourism economy and also the best for international tour. This part can be deemed as the main part of international tourism， because the Silk Road is the link of ancient culture between East and West and Lanzhou is an important station on the whole Silk Road. Walking towards the west from here， you can reach to Wuwei， Zhangye and Jiuquan. Essence is all here.

“I’ve travelled for nearly 30 years all around the world and find that most part of ancient Chinese civilization lies in Gansu，” said Ma Zhongxin， “Gansu has rich tourism resources but are rarely known by people. As a native-born people in Lanzhou， I want to try my best to make it well-known over the world.”

In 2013， he took part in the activity named “Across Northern latitude 40°”. “Walking on the road， I would always think about Xuanzang and Zhang Qian and reflect on what kind of adventure spirit and surprising perseverance they had that support them finishing travelling on this road.” He said that especially when he saw the old site of temple where Xuanzang sermon was still located in unchanged surroundings for a thousand years， he felt as if a century had reversed and he could have a talk with Xuanzang.

Besides walking on this Silk Road， he nearly leaves his footprints in every corner of China and finally finishes this travel notes Named Legend of China. To confirm the facticity of Echo Chan’s story， he alone walked across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco and finally reached to west Sahara desert. He visited the residence of Echo Chan and Jose， then moved westerly to visit Canary Islands and published Truth of Echo Chan’s Story.

He said he would travel for another 20 years and then find a place to live in seclusion. This is what the Buddhist ideas indicate “All will go back to the dust and calm finally.”