Set at the time of the Han dynasty in China, the Parthian Empire in Persia and the Roman Empire in, well, Rome, this book goes further than any in explaining how the first Silk Roads era (100 B.C ...

The book condenses Hou's decade-long journey across key spots along the ancient Silk Road landscapes like the Lop Nur in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Loaded with Chinese silk, porcelain, and lacquerware, the junks visited ports around the Indian Ocean. Here, Arab and African merchants exchanged the spices, ivory, medicines, ...