Why is it called Silk Road?
China was the world’s first country to breed silkworms and produce silk. In 138 BC, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 220) sent the general Zhang Qian to seek a military alliance with his Persian neighbors to the west. It was actually a web of caravan tracks that starts in the old capital of and Xi’an, passing through south and central Asia and winding its way along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Rome. One extremely important trade item was silk among other goods like gold, precious metals and stones, ivory, spices, tea, paper, textiles and chinaware. This ancient trade route was what we now know as the Silk Road, which had become the main artery for the flow of goods between China and the West since then.
