China Silk Road Tours

China Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that extended from Eastern Europe to China. The Silk Road not only contained silk but carried other goods like spices, porcelain, perfume, gems, coral, ivory, furs, gunpoweder, to barter or sell. Many of the large caravans went from one city to other cities, they may did not travel the entire Silk Road, but the goods would be traded all along the route until they reached the far ends. 

This Silk Road went through from Xian, Lanzhou, Jiuquan, Yumen, Turpan, Xinjiang and eventually into Asia, it offers up numerous spectacular highlights, including grottoes, ruins, passes, architecture and natural landscapes. Shanghai Private Tour specialize in China Package Tours and Silk Road tours that offer great oppotunity to explore the exotic culture and mysterious history of the old Silk Road. Below are the top selling China Silk Road Tours accompanied by expert guide! Unbeatable Price! Easy to Pay! Easy to Book! Recommended by 98% of our clients. 

Top Selling China Silk Road Tours

5 Days Xian Silk Road Tour to Dunhuang & Jiayuguan

Hit the highlights of Dunhuang & Jiayuguan without the hassles of planning transportation from Xian on this China Silk Road tour package. This private tour help you save your precious sightseeing time in Dunhuang & Jiayuguan, with your private knowledgaeble guide, discover the history of Silk Road, and find gradually changing landscape and culture of west part of China.

7 Days Xinjiang Silk Road Discovery Tour

This 7-Day Xinjiang Silk Road Discovery Tour will take you to explore the mystery of Xinjiang, the northwest region of China. Xinjiang, as the most important part of ancient Silk Road, used to be a trading   center of Middle Asia. Tour Urumqi, Kashgar and Turpan with your informative tour guide, you will have great fun viewing at Karakuri Lake, Id Kah Mosque, Abakh Khoja   Tomb, Old Town of Kashgar, to experience the picturesque landscape and the genuine Uyghur life in China!

14 Days Best China Silk Road Tour

Chinese Silk Road, a route of incomparable attraction to travelers who are interested in the human cultural relics, which used to be quite prosperous in the Tang Dynasty and now become pretty silent regarding international business.This 14 Days Best China Silk Road Tour from Xian to Urumqi will take you to the mysterious and attractive historical Silk Route in old China, it covers most of the famous spots in Silk Road.

History of Silk Road 
Silk Road, also called Silk Route, ancient trade route, linking China with the West, that carried goods and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China. Silk went westward, and wools, gold, and silver went east. China also received Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism (from India) via the Silk Road.

The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce between 130 BCE-1453 CE. As the Silk Road was not a single thoroughfare from east to west, the term 'Silk Routes’ has become increasingly favored by historians, though 'Silk Road' is the more common and recognized name.

The European explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE) traveled on these routes and described them in depth in his famous work but he is not credited with naming them. Both terms for this network of roads were coined by the German geographer and traveler, Ferdinand von Richthofen, in 1877 CE, who designated them 'Seidenstrasse' (silk road) or 'Seidenstrassen’ (silk routes). Polo, and later von Richthofen, make mention of the goods which were transported back and forth on the Silk Road. 

Goods Traded via Silk Road
While many different kinds of merchandise traveled along the Silk Road, the name comes from the popularity of Chinese silk with the west, especially with Rome. The Silk Road routes stretched from China through India, Asia Minor, up throughout Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the African continent, Greece, Rome, and Britain.

The northern Mesopotamian region (present-day Iran) became China’s closest partner in trade, as part of the Parthian Empire, initiating important cultural exchanges. Paper, which had been invented by the Chinese during the Han Dynasty, and gunpowder, also a Chinese invention, had a much greater impact on culture than did silk. The rich spices of the east, also, contributed more than the fashion which grew up from the silk industry. Even so, by the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus (r.27 BCE – 14 CE) trade between China and the west was firmly established and silk was the most sought-after commodity in Egypt, Greece, and, especially, in Rome.

The Silk Road Legacy
The greatest value of the Silk Road was the exchange of culture. Art, religion, philosophy, technology, language, science, architecture, and every other element of civilization was exchanged along these routes, carried with the commercial goods the merchants traded from country to country. Along this network disease traveled also, as evidenced in the spread of the bubonic plague of 542 CE which is thought to have arrived in Constantinople by way of the Silk Road and which decimated the Byzantine Empire.

The closing of the Silk Road forced merchants to take to the sea to ply their trade, thus initiating the Age of Discovery which led to world-wide interaction and the beginnings of a global community. In its time, the Silk Road served to broaden people's understanding of the world they lived in; its closure would propel Europeans across the ocean to explore, and eventually conquer, the so-called New World of the Americas. In this way, the Silk Road can be said to have established the groundwork for the development of the modern world.