|
|
Article: Shadow of the silk road.(BOOKMARKS SELECTION)(Book review)
- Article from:
- Bookmarks
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Bookmarks Publishing LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
EXCELLENT
The greatest land route.
Despite its name, the Silk Road--the almost mythical subject of Colin Thubron's ninth travel book--is not a single road but a vast network of trade routes that have conducted merchants, goods, explorers, and armies from east to west and west to east since 1500 BC. Tracing the 7,000-mile, officially unmarked route from Xian, China, to Antioch, Turkey, took the 60-something Thubron two years and led him through countries and among people he had written about as many as 40 years earlier. Thubron travels rough--hitchhiking, drinking with beggars, staying in villagers' mud huts--and connects with the people he meets along ...