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The China Silk Road Some pictures
Until about the 12th Century AD, the Silk Road stretched from Japan to Rome. A significant portion was in far western China, crossing deserts and mountains. Today, this area still has some impressive sights to see, some contemporaneous with the Silk Road, some earlier and some in use today. They include Buddhist temples carved into the sides of cliffs with magnificent murals on the walls and ceilings; mummified corpses, textiles and artifacts preserved by the desert climate; ruins of ancient cities that were built with mud-brick construction; magnificent lakes with towering snow-capped mountains in the background; rural areas where donkey carts are the predominant mode of transport; weekly markets for the sale and trading of sheep, goats, cow, horses and camels; dyeing and weaving of silk ikat (called "atlas" here) textiles; and restaurants and night markets where lamb and vegetables grilled on skewers ("sashlik") are the main dishes. Jeff and Fern Krauss shared their pictures and experiences from two weeks they spent visiting the China Silk Road in September 2010.
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