The origin of the Silk Road as we have come to know it begins in second century BCE. A general called Zhang Qian was sent to the Far West by Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty to make contact with ...

China was the earliest country to raise silkworms and produce silk. The outstanding diplomat Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty (206BC—220AD) traveled the road between 138BC to 139BC. He led a ...

The 1938 excavation of the tomb of Zhang Qian, a pioneering envoy who helped establish the ancient Silk Road across Central Asia, launched the study of archaeology at Northwest University in China ...

He dispatched Zhang Qian twice as his envoy to the Western Regions, and in the process pioneered the route known as the "Silk Road" from Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), through ...