Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

  • Author: Valerie Hansen

The meaning of the Silk Road today

The Silk Road initiative, announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 and implemented this year, contemplates so vast an investment in highways, ports, and railways that it will transform the ancient Silk Road into a ribbon of gold for surrounding countries. Multiple new trade corridors could potentially run through Xinjiang, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and many other […]

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Facts about the Silk Road

The ‘Silk Road’ was a stretch of shifting, unmarked paths across massive expanses of deserts and mountains – not a real road at any point or time. Archaeologists have found few ancient Silk Road bridges, gates, or paving stones like those along Rome’s Appian Way. They are best seen from the air…

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