1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,280 This is the story of a trade route that changed the world. 2 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,600 A route that was over 5l,000 miles long. 3 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:18,560 It began with a single commodity. 4 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,640 A material spun from the cocoon of a moth 5 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,120 that became the clothing of emperors. 6 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,080 This was the Silk Road. 7 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:35,320 It ran all the way from China's ancient capital 8 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,200 through Central Asia, 9 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,120 through mythical cities such as Samarkand, 10 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:45,080 or Persepolis, until it reached the bazaars of Istanbul. 11 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:46,920 The merchants of Venice. 12 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,160 It ran through deserts and oases. 13 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:55,120 I'll get to see the Silk Road treasures of Iran, 14 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,160 now once more opening to travellers like me. 15 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:00,440 I'm starting to think that I may have actually been 16 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,160 an Iranian merchant in a former life. 17 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,920 And it ran through valleys and over mountain passes. 18 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:10,000 From Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan, 19 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,800 emperors and princes fought to control the Silk Road. 20 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:15,920 It was worth fighting for. 21 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,680 Along its many miles, there was money to be made. 22 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,960 But the peoples on the Silk Road not only bought and bartered goods, 23 00:01:23,960 --> 00:01:26,720 they also exchanged ideas and techniques 24 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,640 on which Western Europe would one day depend. 25 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:32,720 Paper, gunpowder and musical instruments. 26 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,800 The Silk Road cut across borders 27 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,200 and brought cultures into contact and conflict. 28 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:46,720 In this episode, I'll travel 2,000 miles 29 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:49,960 in the footsteps of the ancient Chinese envoy 30 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,480 who first made the Silk Road possible. 31 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,600 I'll meet the goddess who discovered silk 32 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:57,880 and I'll find out that on the Silk Road, 33 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:00,160 business didn't even stop for death. 34 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,680 He was expecting to collect on those loans in the afterlife. 35 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:21,360 I'm a historian, 36 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,040 and Venice has always had a special fascination for me. 37 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,320 It has a central, vital place in European history - 38 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:35,400 but there's something strange about it. Something mysterious. 39 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:40,280 Charles Dickens once described Venice as an hallucination. 40 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,400 When he visited here in 1844, 41 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,760 he was unable to rid himself of the feeling that somehow, 42 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,160 strangely, weirdly, Venice wasn't a European city at all, 43 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,960 but an Oriental one which, in his own words, 44 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,920 "was troubled by the wild, luxuriant fantasies of the East". 45 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:04,280 He wrote to a friend, "The wildest visions of the Arabian nights 46 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,320 "are nothing to the Piazza of St Mark. 47 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,560 "Opium couldn't build such a place." 48 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:15,120 Wherever he looked, he saw the Orient. 49 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,520 Windows everywhere that belonged to the Arab world. 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,960 Venice is full of traces of the trade on which its wealth was based. 51 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,720 Memories of a network of business connections 52 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,120 known today as the Silk Road 53 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,200 that once stretched across the Mediterranean Sea, 54 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:36,920 into the very heart of Asia. 55 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,520 Once you're aware that these traces are there to be seen, 56 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:44,520 you find them everywhere. 57 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,360 The Doge's Palace in St Mark's Square. 58 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:50,520 The ornaments to its roofline 59 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,600 and the repeated pattern of squares on its facade. 60 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:57,040 Well, these aren't European at all. 61 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:00,840 They're modelled on Muslim styles of architecture. 62 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,320 North of the Grand Canal, approaching the edge of Venice, 63 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,120 we find this. 64 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,240 Does he look Italian to you? I don't think so. 65 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,240 Statues like these advertised the presence of people 66 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,680 who traded in the exotic artefacts and produce, not of Europe, 67 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,600 but of another world entirely. 68 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:32,200 And then, around the corner, a stern-looking fellow 69 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,760 with a strange metal nose and a pack on his shoulders. 70 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,280 The fading letters spell out the word Rabarbaro. 71 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,200 It's the Italian word for rhubarb, 72 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,680 a plant that first came here from China along the Silk Road. 73 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,280 No Silk Road, no rhubarb crumble. 74 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:53,320 And here's my favourite. 75 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,680 A house, so the story goes, built by three brothers, 76 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,240 the Mori brothers, in the 1120s. 77 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:00,800 The Palazzo del Cammello. 78 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:04,720 The House of the Camel. 79 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:08,160 But it's not merely a matter of decorations and carvings. 80 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,480 It goes deeper than the skin of this old city. 81 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:15,240 Commerce is always about more than just the exchange of money. 82 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,560 If I walk away from a trader with a set of Chinese bowls 83 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:20,720 or a barrel of gunpowder, a ream of paper, 84 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:23,920 or a text explaining the principles of algebra, 85 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,840 I'm obviously carrying more than the objects themselves. 86 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:28,640 I'm carrying ideas. 87 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,960 Ideas that can change my life, that of my country, 88 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,320 sometimes completely, whether I want to admit it or not. 89 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:36,960 So here's my question - 90 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:39,280 exactly how much does Venice 91 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:42,040 and all of Europe really owe to the Silk Road? 92 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,000 So I'm going on a journey from China through Central Asia, 93 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,120 through Iran, to Turkey and back here to Venice. 94 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,360 A very similar journey was made by Marco Polo, 95 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:00,480 the Venetian travel writer, trader and explorer extraordinaire 96 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,240 more than 700 years ago. 97 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,080 When Marco Polo returned to this great city, he wrote a book. 98 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:11,040 Now, I'm going to take one with me instead, to write in - a journal, 99 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:12,520 but also a scrapbook, 100 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:17,040 somewhere to put photographs of the places and people that I will meet. 101 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,360 I'm also going to have a few sketches to put in here, as well, 102 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,320 of the people, of the creatures I might hope to meet. 103 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:25,760 Sketches of princesses, of conquerors. 104 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:28,120 Now, today, these pages are blank, 105 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,560 but come with me, watch me fill them - 106 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,640 and the first thing I'm going to put in here is a map. 107 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:41,560 This is China and this is where my journey begins. 108 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:47,640 In the 3,000-year-old city that once upon a time was China's capital. 109 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:49,360 Xi'an. 110 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:09,600 Every evening in Xi'an's old city, the market comes to life. 111 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,720 Xi'an has always been seen as the beginning of the Silk Road. 112 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,440 The streets are bustling and narrow, 113 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:24,040 but I feel a little like Charles Dickens did in Venice. 114 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,320 I'm not entirely sure where I am. 115 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:30,480 Chinese writing is everywhere, 116 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,760 but China and Chinese food is rather harder to find. 117 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:41,160 Hm. Lamb kebabs, which I'm pretty sure is a Turkish dish. 118 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,600 Everywhere I look, there are people wearing Islamic prayer hats. 119 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,640 And this is nothing new. It's not some recent wave of immigration. 120 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,240 I think you'll agree, I could be forgiven if I became confused. 121 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,120 And the fact that there's been a Muslim community here 122 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:04,200 since the 8th century is entirely due to the Silk Road, 123 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,760 to the lines of trade and communication it established. 124 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,360 The Muslims who came here weren't tourists or captives, 125 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,240 they were traders. 126 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:24,080 And all around me in Xi'an's ancient city 127 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:26,320 is the world the Silk Road delivers. 128 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:29,440 The market, trade. 129 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,480 And it reminds me that consumer society is nothing new. 130 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:42,400 Even something as simple as this. 131 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:44,840 White China, blue decoration. 132 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:47,600 Now, China's porcelain was incredibly fine, 133 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,840 but further down the Silk Road, 134 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,560 I'll find local versions in inferior, thicker clay 135 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:57,400 with the same basic shapes, the same basic colour scheme. 136 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:01,680 In this single object, you can begin to see the power of the Silk Road. 137 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,680 Everything sells on the Silk Road - 138 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:10,000 and where trade leads, cultures follow. 139 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,520 The next morning, the market's closed for business. 140 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:23,400 In the gardens just beside it, the world seems Chinese again. 141 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:30,000 What could be more Chinese than this collection of buildings? 142 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:36,360 These eaves, these roofs, this dragon. 143 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:38,880 But once I've reached the largest building 144 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:42,240 which stands in these gardens, plainer than the others, 145 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:46,120 but still apparently very Chinese, I find this. 146 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:48,280 RHYTHMIC CHANTING 147 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,040 It's a mosque. The Great Mosque of Xi'an. 148 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:58,800 There's been one here since the 8th century. 149 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:05,840 As mixed messages go, this has to be one of the biggest I have ever seen. 150 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,560 TARDIS levels of strangeness. 151 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:14,600 Outside, one place, but inside...another. 152 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:22,760 Trade brought these people here and religion came with them 153 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:26,360 as inevitably, as naturally as their luggage. 154 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,120 China was a magnet to traders. For more than a thousand years, 155 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:32,960 it was a place of innovations and inventions. 156 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,960 And, with a regularity that I, as a Westerner, 157 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:38,200 feel I have to take personally, 158 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,640 they came up with these things time and time again 159 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:43,600 hundreds of years before we did. 160 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,360 I'm still in Xi'an, visiting a museum 161 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,160 dedicated to just one of those vitally important inventions. 162 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:58,600 But which one? 163 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,480 It's not immediately obvious what's going on here. 164 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:07,400 This man appears to have it in for a pile of moistened vegetable matter. 165 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:11,480 He passes his work on to these ladies, 166 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:14,040 who remove the last traces of bark. 167 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:25,200 Then a man thrashes at it in a bath until it's broken down entirely. 168 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:28,200 What are they up to? 169 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:34,880 Ah, it's paper. 170 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,880 One of those ideas that seems so obvious once you've had it. 171 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:43,240 China may have developed paper 172 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:46,920 before the time of Christ, for wrapping medicines. 173 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:49,240 Writing came later - 174 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:53,960 but China's official histories have always dated it 105 AD 175 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:55,640 and named the inventor. 176 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:57,520 It was a court eunuch, 177 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,920 a civil servant named Cai Lun, who invented paper. 178 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,480 The absence of testicles in the Chinese civil service 179 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:05,800 were seen as a positive advantage. 180 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,680 There were fewer distractions. 181 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:11,480 Cai Lun was completely focused on his career. 182 00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:14,560 Now, it has been claimed that he took credit for an invention 183 00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:16,360 that wasn't really his - 184 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:20,280 but he was immediately promoted and has been remembered ever since. 185 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:25,200 Here's a new statue of him. 186 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:30,760 As well as paper, many other things were invented in China, 187 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:34,400 travelled along the Silk Roads and transformed European life. 188 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:36,920 From the relatively trivial, the umbrella, 189 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:40,400 to the absolutely vital, such as printing. 190 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,400 Then there's gunpowder and the magnetic compass 191 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:49,280 and certain kinds of suspension bridge, certain kinds of pump, 192 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,240 techniques for deep drilling, rotary fans, wheelbarrows, 193 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:55,720 crossbows, kites, the casting of iron, canal locks. 194 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:58,280 Once the Silk Road was established, 195 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:02,360 there were moments when ideas and commodities were traded along it. 196 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:04,760 Now, paper is a good example. 197 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:09,520 Until 751, it was an exclusively Chinese technique. 198 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,040 But then Muslim and Chinese forces met in battle 199 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:16,560 way out beyond China's western borders, in a place called Talas. 200 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:18,920 The Chinese were defeated. 201 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,760 And amongst those captured were a band of hapless papermakers. 202 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,520 Within 50 years, paper was being made in Baghdad, 203 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:29,960 but it wasn't until the 12th century that it reached Europe. 204 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,880 But none of this could happen until there was a Silk Road - 205 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,520 and that didn't happen until after China became a single kingdom. 206 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,320 Xi'an is home to the Terracotta Army, 207 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:46,680 the construction of which was ordered by the man 208 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:51,320 responsible in the 3rd century BC for creating China. 209 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:55,160 China is named after him. He was the Qin Emperor. 210 00:13:57,600 --> 00:13:59,760 When he died in 210 BC, 211 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:03,600 his clay god was ready for installation in an elaborate tomb. 212 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:06,360 8,000 life-sized figures, 213 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,240 130 chariots and 600 horses. 214 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,160 A marriage of art and power. 215 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:19,720 The dust from the army's construction has long since settled. 216 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:21,560 But this business in Xi'an 217 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:24,560 is dedicated to producing exact replicas, 218 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,920 using red clay from the same pits. 219 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:31,480 We could easily be in the 3rd century BC. 220 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,680 Qin Emperor has just died, 221 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,520 work on the last few ranks of his funeral guard is underway. 222 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:43,280 There were deliberate attempts to convey a variety of faces. 223 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:45,960 Look into their eyes. 224 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,640 Here is a ruthless veteran of the wars of conquest. 225 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,840 And here's a young man who's only just signed up. 226 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,960 And here are some soldiers who disappointed the emperor. 227 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,160 And here is the figure of the emperor himself. 228 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,120 There's more than a hint of self-satisfaction 229 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:18,680 about his bearing, don't you think? 230 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:20,040 And if there's a sense 231 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,200 that the faces of all the soldiers are portraits, 232 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,440 then perhaps this is, too. 233 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:28,920 Perhaps some memory is preserved here of the face of the man 234 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:33,520 who first forced China, despite itself, to become one realm. 235 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:35,880 And, of course, in real life, 236 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:38,520 these glorious robes were all made of silk. 237 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,080 The company's founder, Mr Han, has been working 238 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:45,760 on these figures for more than 20 years. 239 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:49,480 Why do you think the emperor chose to be buried with his soldiers? 240 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,640 So, planning to fight in the afterlife. 241 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,720 What do you think he would've been like if you'd met him? 242 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:39,920 Do you think his soldiers would have been frightened of him? 243 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:48,000 From the Terracotta Army, 244 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,560 we learned that the unification of China was no accident. 245 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,200 It was achieved by force of arms. 246 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,440 Even in death, the Qin Emperor wanted to leave a reminder 247 00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:59,880 that China was armed to the teeth 248 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:03,320 and that he and his successors wanted more. 249 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,040 Enough is never enough. 250 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,600 The court of the Qin Emperor was dangerous. 251 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:18,280 One sacked advisor fled the court and left this opinion behind... 252 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,080 "The King of Qin is like a bird of prey. 253 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,720 "There is no beneficence in him. 254 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,600 "He has the heart of a tiger or a wolf. 255 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:31,400 "If his ambitions for the empire are fulfilled, 256 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:33,520 "all men will be his slaves." 257 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:43,200 This army shows that in the century before the Silk Roads opened up, 258 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,480 China was ready for conquest and expansion, 259 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,400 but it can show us something else, as well. 260 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:53,680 Humans are all life-size and the horses must be, too. 261 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,680 But they're all tiny. 262 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,880 In the Qin Emperor's day, all China had was little ponies, 263 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,520 almost too cute for combat - 264 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:08,080 and that remained true for decades after the emperor's death... 265 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,520 ..until a world-changing journey took place. 266 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:21,240 It's a journey that China has recently decided to celebrate 267 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,320 outside Xi'an's ancient city in a carefully antique style. 268 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,920 On a roundabout in the middle of a business district. 269 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:34,360 I'm not sure what I'm seeing here, I haven't been in China long enough, 270 00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:38,920 but I strongly suspect that art and power are still in bed together. 271 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,720 50 years after the death of the Qin Emperor, 272 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,480 there was a new dynasty in charge, the Han dynasty. 273 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:50,360 And there was an emperor, Wudi, 274 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:52,680 who wanted to deal with the barbarians 275 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:55,080 who plagued the edges of his territory. 276 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,400 The Chinese called these people the Xiongnu. 277 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:04,920 Now, the Xiongnu, quite possibly the people that we call the Huns, 278 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,680 were experts at mobile warfare, 279 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,920 and they were more than an irritant. They were a threat. 280 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,600 There were rumours of other people far to the west, 281 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,840 potential allies in the war against the Xiongnu. 282 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:21,640 So the emperor sent an envoy, Zhang Qian, 283 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:23,480 on a mission of discovery. 284 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,200 And here he is. 285 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,280 It was a long and difficult journey, 286 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,120 and what this sculpture commemorates 287 00:19:33,120 --> 00:19:36,760 is what he brought back more than ten years later. 288 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,600 China's horses were tiny, but the nomads had fabulous steeds. 289 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,800 So much more impressive than anything in China 290 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,720 that Zhang Qian declared them heavenly. 291 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,040 After Zhang Qian returned with tales of these heavenly horses, 292 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,120 magnificent animals of great stamina, 293 00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:58,520 which you could ride, if you were brave enough, 294 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:01,800 which descended from dragons which sweated blood, 295 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:04,800 it was all too much for his emperor to resist. 296 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:09,160 Here was the perfect warhorse, which is exactly what China needed 297 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,720 to defend and extend its borders. 298 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,560 So almost immediately, Zhang Qian was sent back 299 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,560 to do the first ever iconic Silk Road deal. 300 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:22,680 He would exchange silk for these heavenly horses. 301 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,880 Zhang Qian's journey would lay the very foundations of the Silk Road. 302 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,880 But before I retrace his steps, I'm travelling 700 miles 303 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:36,720 from Xi'an to the green hills near the city of Chengdu. 304 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,600 I want to learn more about the miraculous commodity 305 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,120 on which all this was based - silk. 306 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:47,520 And there's someone I want to pay my respects to. 307 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,640 The person who discovered that fibres from the cocoon 308 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,920 of the silk moth could be unwound and woven. 309 00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:58,320 Archaeologists have found and carbon-dated traces 310 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,720 of silk manufacture from about 5,000 years ago. 311 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,800 But, pardon me, that's mere science. 312 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:07,720 The Chinese prefer to believe that the discovery 313 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,040 was made by a goddess in about 2,000 BC. 314 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:14,760 Good afternoon, Silk Mother. 315 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,640 The Silk Mother dominates this lush, green landscape 316 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,600 two hours' drive from Chengdu. 317 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,080 The worship of the Silk Mother is about 4,000 years old 318 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,240 and still continues. 319 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,600 This statue is recently built. 320 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,200 Mrs Woo and Mrs Liung are its caretakers. 321 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,080 Very kindly, they've agreed to talk to me... 322 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,120 at the same time. 323 00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:43,600 Why do people still revere the Silk Mother? 324 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:03,400 Do you teach your children to revere the Silk Mother, as well? 325 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:43,760 The Silk Mother wasn't always a goddess. 326 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:50,520 Over 4,000 years ago, she was merely human. An emperor's wife. 327 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,840 Her name was Leizu, 328 00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:57,240 married to an emperor who was himself more a myth than a reality. 329 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:02,440 He reigned from 2697 to 2597 BC. 330 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:03,960 A whole century. 331 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,200 In myths, emperors lived that long. 332 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,640 One day, she was drinking tea in her garden 333 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:12,280 underneath a mulberry tree 334 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:16,800 when the cocoon of a silk moth fell out of a branch into her teacup. 335 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,120 She tried to pick it out, but ended up pulling on a thread. 336 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:28,320 Because in scalding heat, the cocoon had begun to unravel. 337 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:30,680 And she pulled and she pulled and soon, 338 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,200 every branch of every tree in the garden was covered in silk. 339 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,520 So grateful were the Chinese people for her discovery 340 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:43,160 that they promoted Leizu. They made her into a goddess. 341 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:01,440 Every year at the same time, 342 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,000 the silk manufacturers of China harvest their cocoons. 343 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,840 And I'm lucky enough to be here when it happens. It's late October. 344 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,960 It's almost as if they re-enact the Silk Mother's discovery every year. 345 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:21,640 Local farmers arrive with their cocoons, the unique source of silk. 346 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:27,960 4,000 year ago, before the Silk Roads were established, 347 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:32,240 it would have been impossible to see this anywhere else in the world. 348 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,000 Silk moths could be found only in China. 349 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:38,920 Inside each of these cocoons, 350 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:43,320 there's a living caterpillar in the process of transforming into a moth. 351 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,080 I'm really not sure what to make of this place. 352 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,880 The first thing that hits you is the smell. It smells a bit like a farm. 353 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:51,760 And there's this weird noise, 354 00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:55,760 sort of clicking and clacking as they sort through the tables. 355 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:57,320 It really is very odd. 356 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,280 The cocoons are sorted for colour and quality. 357 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,480 And then, this. 358 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:11,960 Each cocoon is a tiny tragedy. 359 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,680 They're plunged into boiling water to loosen the threads 360 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,000 of which they're made, 361 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,160 so the making of silk has two outcomes. 362 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,720 A pile of tiny, sodden caterpillar corpses... 363 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:34,840 ..and this extraordinarily beautiful glossy thread. 364 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,840 It looks like human hair. 365 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,880 As though a million Rapunzels have just donated. 366 00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:00,080 Silk was and is magical. 367 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,400 The strength of its threads rivals anything we can synthesise. 368 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,400 When woven into fabric, it has a natural sheen. 369 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,640 It can be made into luxuriant materials with soft, buttery folds 370 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,640 or into almost transparent wisps, 371 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,160 an invitation to extremely bad behaviour. 372 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,520 Silk itself has been used as money 373 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,280 and it has become the very stuff of history, too. 374 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:32,400 Traded for jewels and jade, traded for weapons and cosmetics, 375 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:35,600 traded for slaves, traded from East to West. 376 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:38,880 The Romans would desire its secrets, 377 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:44,800 and eventually, after centuries of envy, and by espionage, secure them. 378 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,360 It would become the ultimate commodity. 379 00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:52,680 This extraordinary thread was the engine of the Silk Road trade 380 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,520 and between about 200 BC and 1400 AD, 381 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,120 it was of absolutely vital importance, 382 00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:04,520 not just to the history of China or to the history of Central Asia, 383 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,040 but to the history of the world. 384 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:11,960 And without the cultural contact, it inspired the changes it generated. 385 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,400 The ideas and inventions that arose along the Silk Road, 386 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,960 well, we Westerners would still be counting on our fingers, 387 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:23,080 writing on leather and thinking that the earth is flat. 388 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,760 When Xang Qian set out on his journey to the West, 389 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:33,840 China had had silk for at least 2,000 years. 390 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,880 His journey would end that monopoly. 391 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,880 Silk would go West, just like Xang Qian. 392 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:44,240 His journey was arduous, risky, slow. 393 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,000 Mine will be more comfortable. 394 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,680 I want to get to one of the places he'll have passed through, 395 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:51,280 or near to, 396 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:55,760 a city which, in his day, sat at China's Western edge. 397 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,360 It's a place called Dunhuang, 398 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:01,960 over 1,000 miles, 24 hours, two trains. 399 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:07,000 It's not exactly a bullet train, it's more of the turtle train. 400 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,160 I meant tortoise! 401 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:12,040 HE LAUGHS 402 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,080 After Xang Qian, this journey to the West became commonplace. 403 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,400 Not just because of horses, but because one of the first things 404 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,160 that arose from his journey 405 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,960 was a trading partnership with another race 406 00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:28,120 who would become of central importance to the Silk Road history. 407 00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,600 Xang Qian made contact with a group of people 408 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,680 whose stock-in-trade was trade itself. 409 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,160 The Sogdians, who lived in the heart of central Asia. 410 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:39,360 They could sell anything. 411 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,600 If only they were alive today, Alan Sugar would be spoilt for choice. 412 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:45,200 He'd probably hire the lot. 413 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:49,960 The Sogdians were of Persian descent. 414 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,360 Here, we see them bearing tribute to the Persian Emperor, 415 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,720 accompanied by a camel, their pack animal of choice. 416 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:02,000 The Chinese sent more envoys to these Sogdian traders. 417 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,960 China reached out to the West, trade began to flow and with it, 418 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,320 ideas, religions, commodities of every sort. 419 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:15,880 Cosmetics, rare oils, works of art, weapons of war and slaves. 420 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,880 On the Silk Road, everything and anybody was for sale. 421 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,400 There would be deals, there would be battles, 422 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:25,640 and Europe's future, 423 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,520 when it would discover the new and startling things 424 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,800 the Silk Road had to offer, grew closer. 425 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,920 Imagine that this train contains not people, 426 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:37,600 but ideas and inventions 427 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,920 that will arrive in Europe and change everything. 428 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,920 Imagine that it contains paper, stirrups, gunpowder, compasses. 429 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,040 That's the power of the Silk Road. 430 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:54,280 It brings change. Unstoppable, inevitable change. 431 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,280 Change on the Silk Road could be fundamental, 432 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,600 it could travel in almost any direction. 433 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,640 Xang Qian's journey brought him to Dunhuang. 434 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,360 He was near what would become the middle of the Silk Road, 435 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,320 a territory occupied by one people after another, 436 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,720 conquered, reconquered, taken and lost. 437 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,040 In the second century after Christ, 438 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:29,920 that process of constant change brought Buddhism to China. 439 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:36,120 By Xang Qian's day, Dunhuang was a vibrant focus for Buddhist culture, 440 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,600 with a complex of almost 500 caves, 441 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:44,920 full of Buddhist imagery, statuary and art - the Mogao Caves. 442 00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,680 They've been included in UNESCO's list 443 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,200 of World Heritage Sites since 1987. 444 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,240 Inside, they are monumental, massively varied. 445 00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:00,800 There are Buddhas who could step on you and never notice. 446 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,000 Amidst it all, there was room for images that evoked 447 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 the sometimes unpleasant realities of life along the Silk Road. 448 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:17,080 Well, here's proof that this trading business wasn't all fun and games. 449 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,360 Here, we've got some bandits with their swords 450 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,600 lying in ambush for some Silk Road traders. 451 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,480 But the biggest moral we can draw from these caves 452 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,200 has more to do with relations between East and West - 453 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,400 our failure to grasp how much Europe owes to the Silk Road. 454 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,400 As the 19th century drew to a close, 455 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,560 a huge cache of documents was discovered here. 456 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:47,960 Documents dating from between the third and 10th centuries AD. 457 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,840 Archaeologists from Europe, Russia and even Japan 458 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:53,720 descended on Dunhuang. 459 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:57,600 Imagine, for the next few minutes, that you're one of them. 460 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,160 You are an explorer and archaeologist, 461 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,400 Hungarian-born, British by choice. 462 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,520 The year is 1907 And your name is Aurel Stein. 463 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,640 Here you are. Neat, freshly washed and combed. 464 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,320 The embodiment of Western civilisation and all its values. 465 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,200 You discover that the Mogao Caves are in the charge of the abbot 466 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:28,440 of the nearby Daoist monastery. 467 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,680 You meet the abbot and you take a picture of him. 468 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,320 He looks a bit simple and shabby. 469 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:38,600 And that's how you treat him. 470 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:39,640 Shabbily. 471 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,240 You expend a certain amount of energy on charming the abbot 472 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,080 and you gain access to the cell where the documents were found. 473 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:55,040 You discover a solid mass of manuscript bundles, 474 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,760 rising to nearly ten feet. 475 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:03,440 You later calculate that's almost 500 cubic feet of documents. 476 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,640 You also note that in other caves, there are paintings 477 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:08,680 dating from the Tang Dynasty - 478 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,440 that's from the 7th to the 9th centuries. 479 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,840 You take your pick, having to rip them off the walls. 480 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,080 You also take your pick of the documents, 481 00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:20,360 including the Diamond Sutra, 482 00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:23,680 the earliest printed book ever discovered, 483 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:25,880 dating from the 9th century. 484 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:31,160 And then you convince Abbot Wang that £130 is more than enough 485 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,280 for all of these treasures. 486 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:34,640 And then you leave. 487 00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,880 You load 29 cases of your plunder onto the backs of camels 488 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,200 and take everything back to Britain. 489 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:46,520 That, as they say, is how we rolled in 1907. 490 00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:49,320 Aurel Stein was no worse, and certainly no better, 491 00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:53,360 than the other archaeologists from Germany, France, Russia, 492 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,960 who saw China's weakness in those years 493 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,240 as a opportunity to plunder her past. 494 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,600 For Mr Wang Zhu-Dong, the director of the Mogao Caves, 495 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:06,240 the wounds are still fresh. 496 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:07,560 How do you feel about the fact 497 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:11,120 that so many wonderful treasures were taken away from you? 498 00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:40,240 Could you talk a little 499 00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:45,040 about the extraordinary variety of material that was in the cave, 500 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:49,200 and particularly, all the languages that the documents were written in? 501 00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:26,920 How... 502 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:28,960 would you like to move forward, 503 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,000 considering that all of these treasures 504 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:32,680 are now spread around the world? 505 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,280 Do you think that they should be brought back? 506 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:56,920 This truth would have been lost on Aurel Stein. 507 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,720 He returned many times to Dunhuang to strip it of antiquities. 508 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,040 On his second visit, in the desert, 509 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,440 he discovered a postbag lost in the fourth century, 510 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,760 containing undelivered letters, 511 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,760 several written by the silk road's legendary traders - 512 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:19,800 the Sogdians. 513 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,200 Translated, they revealed the stock phrases 514 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,480 of Sogdian courtesy and goodwill. 515 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:36,320 "It would be a good day for him who might see you happy. 516 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:40,640 "It would be a good day for him who might see you healthy and at ease". 517 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:42,360 And my favourite one of all - 518 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,160 "When I hear news of your good health, 519 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,440 "I consider myself immortal." 520 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,200 Written as they are by Sogdians, 521 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,920 most of the letters are about business, 522 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,320 reports to employers of what they have to sell, 523 00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:59,920 what's selling well, what is selling badly. 524 00:36:59,920 --> 00:37:02,880 Silver, linen, unfinished cloth, pepper 525 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,880 and powdered white lead - a cosmetic - are referred to. 526 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,120 All the letters dated from early in the fourth century. 527 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:14,240 They speak to us across a gulf of 1,700 years. 528 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,480 One of them was written by a Sogdian woman named Miwnay 529 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,760 to her errant husband, called Nanaidhat, who had abandoned her. 530 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,560 After the standard Sogdian messages of goodwill, 531 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:29,960 her real feelings become apparent. 532 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,360 "Behold", she writes, 533 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,240 "I am living badly, not well, wretchedly. 534 00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:38,920 "And I consider myself dead. 535 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,040 "Again and again I send you a letter, 536 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:44,560 "but I do not receive a single letter from you. 537 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,120 "And I have become without hope towards you. 538 00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,040 "My misfortune is this - 539 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,040 "I have been in Dunhuang for three years, thanks to you. 540 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:58,600 "Surely the gods were angry with me on the day I did your bidding. 541 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:03,000 "I would rather be a dog's or a pig's wife than yours". 542 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,160 It's a tantalising glimpse into her life. 543 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:11,880 We know no more. 544 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,080 And we want to. 545 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:16,000 Was she OK? 546 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:17,920 Did she get home? Did she remarry? 547 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,360 Or did she die here? 548 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,320 Have I walked over her grave? 549 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,920 Lives we can understand, 550 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,960 real lives were lived here, 551 00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:33,560 began and ended here. 552 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:36,320 Dunhuang is full of such memories. 553 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,560 Memories, too, of real choices. 554 00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:44,760 The fact that, at every oasis, at every city along the silk road, 555 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,480 the trader faced moment of decision. 556 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:51,960 In this case, it was, "How shall I cross the desert?" 557 00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:55,600 And then other little worries came hurrying along. 558 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,040 Where can I sell what I'm carrying? 559 00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:01,440 Will what I'm carrying survive? 560 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:03,880 Will I? 561 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:11,120 Today, tourists can hire camels for a ride across the dunes. 562 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,840 They are the right kind of camels, Bactrian, two-humped. 563 00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:18,600 The Chinese had known the breed for centuries by the time Zhang Qian 564 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,640 set off on his journey and, for centuries more, 565 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:26,280 it would remain the most important pack animal along the silk road. 566 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,280 So, yes, ride camels - 567 00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:32,440 but this is where the authenticity begins to stutter slightly. 568 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,520 Come in, number 591. Your time is up. 569 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,120 The camel trek brings the tourists to Crescent Lake. 570 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:45,800 A real enough oasis. Certainly once a real stop on the silk road. 571 00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:50,240 But, by the 1990s, the oasis had largely run dry. 572 00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:53,760 Apparently, ever since, it's been regularly topped up. 573 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:59,960 The desert is entirely real, but today it is tame enough to walk in. 574 00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:01,440 Tame enough to write on. 575 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,560 It's no longer what it was... 576 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,120 which was terrifying. 577 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:13,560 The desert that stretched to the west of Dunhuang 578 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,800 was the stuff of fables. 579 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:19,760 130,000 square miles of extreme aridity. 580 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,760 A graveyard for the unwise silk roader - 581 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:23,800 the Taklamakan. 582 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:32,880 People are unsure of where the name derives from, or its exact meaning - 583 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,840 but none of the possible translations are very appealing. 584 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:38,880 The place of ruins. 585 00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:40,600 The abandoned place. 586 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,400 The place to leave behind. 587 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:49,240 You couldn't go through it, there was no water. 588 00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:52,040 West of Dunhuang, you made your choice. 589 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,360 You go to the desert's north, or its south. 590 00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:08,720 Eventually, you came to a gate. 591 00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:10,280 There was once one here, 592 00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:14,160 and the Great Wall of China stretched out on either side. 593 00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,760 This is the Yangguan. The Yang Pass. 594 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:20,200 You paid your toll and passed through. 595 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:25,600 If you were a trader, you thought about your return. 596 00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:30,080 What you might exchange your silk, your cosmetic, your paper for. 597 00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:31,600 You thought about profit. 598 00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,000 But exiles came this way, too. 599 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,400 This was China's western edge. 600 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,680 It became a place that inspired poetry about loss, 601 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,600 the painful separation of friends. 602 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:50,000 "On the long road from the Yang Pass, not one person returns. 603 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:53,560 "Only the geese on the river fly south for the winter". 604 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,360 Or... 605 00:41:56,360 --> 00:42:00,400 "The morning rain of Weicheng dampens the dust. 606 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:04,200 "The guesthouse is green, like fresh willows. 607 00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,640 "Let's finish one more cup of wine, dear sir. 608 00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:11,240 "West of Yangguan, you'll meet no more old friends". 609 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:17,040 Here, at the edge of the Taklamakan, the Chinese authorities 610 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,920 have done their best to supply what time has destroyed, 611 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:22,600 or history never provided. 612 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:26,720 This shaded viewpoint, 613 00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:30,080 wagons abandoned by the silk road traders 614 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:31,880 and the Yang fortress, 615 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,080 ruined by centuries of desert weather 616 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,000 and recently rebuilt, cast in concrete. 617 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:46,120 Inside, pillars carved with camels and caravans 618 00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:49,280 supply the necessary silk road branding. 619 00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:53,080 And, of course, there is another essential ingredient. 620 00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:54,200 Our old friend. 621 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,520 Here is Zhang Qian, 622 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,200 astride another one of those heavenly horses. 623 00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,800 The more I follow in Zhang Qian's footsteps, 624 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:10,440 the further along the silk road I go, the more I find that China 625 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:15,320 has put a great deal of effort into bringing it all back to life. 626 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:19,160 The obvious reason is that the silk road is becoming a tourist route, 627 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,680 which requires tourist destinations. 628 00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:26,040 Less obviously, China is reopening doors into its past, 629 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,880 many of which have been shut since the days of Mao Zedong. 630 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,040 History is once again permitted. 631 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:37,960 I've made my choice. 632 00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:41,520 I'll take the Northern passage along the edge of the Taklamakan. 633 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:44,080 I want to get to an oasis city, called Turpan. 634 00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:46,160 And I'm beginning to wonder if, somewhere, 635 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:48,440 I might see a heavenly horse for myself. 636 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:53,920 I've travelled 500 miles. 637 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:56,480 I'm still well within China's current borders. 638 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,200 But it really doesn't feel like it. 639 00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,720 It feels as though I've gone much further. 640 00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:04,440 The writing on the wall looks like Arabic. 641 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,760 I'm surprised, just as I was by the Great Mosque in Xi'an. 642 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,640 Here in Turpan is a world of Islam. 643 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:19,760 Mosques and minarets and faces that are not Chinese. 644 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:21,720 These people are Uyghur, 645 00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:24,320 and the Uyghur are a vexed question. 646 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,200 Their history is far from simple. 647 00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,000 The Uyghur have been here since the ninth century. 648 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,320 The Chinese authorities treat them as a single minority, 649 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:40,280 but even the briefest look at their faces reveals a mixed heritage. 650 00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:44,840 Some look Caucasian, some look Turkish, some more Mongol. 651 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,760 A few might even be Chinese. 652 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,000 And that is their story. 653 00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:53,240 They arrived here from lands that had been conquered by the Mongols, 654 00:44:53,240 --> 00:44:56,560 settling around the edges of the Taklamakan desert. 655 00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,520 The language that they spoke was related to Turkish. 656 00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:03,280 But, once here, they interbred, converted to Buddhism, 657 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:07,480 and were eventually conquered and converted by Islamic forces. 658 00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:10,480 On the silk road, tribes, even entire races, 659 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,880 get knocked from place to place, like billiard balls. 660 00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:19,360 The Uyghur are living history, 661 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:20,640 and Turpan itself 662 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:24,680 is a cupboard containing several sorts of yesterday. 663 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,400 One of them is an ancient tradition - 664 00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:29,320 that of Chinese wine. 665 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,880 I'm here at entirely the wrong time of year to see grapes on the vines. 666 00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:36,160 If I were here in summer, 667 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,280 I'd be sweltering in 40-degree heat at the very least. 668 00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:41,840 50 degrees is more common. 669 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,000 But now people are getting ready for a winter 670 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:48,240 that will be well below freezing, pulling the vines off their frames, 671 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:50,920 so that they will be less exposed to the cold. 672 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:52,800 It's going to be quite a long day. 673 00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,040 Grapes have been grown here for about 2,000 years. 674 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:02,960 Some people say they were brought here by Zhang Qian. 675 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,360 That, to me, it seems a bit... 676 00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:11,600 neat. As if everything momentous that happens on the silk road 677 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,840 has to be attributed to that miraculous Chinese envoy. 678 00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:19,760 The truth appears to be that when Zhang Qian passed this way, 679 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,040 the grapes were already here. 680 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,920 Brought, perhaps, by the short-lived empire of Alexander the Great. 681 00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:29,480 When he finally returned to his emperor in China's ancient capital, 682 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,960 Zhang Qian took some of those grapevines with him. 683 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:38,360 It's a tradition that China has only recently learned to treasure. 684 00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:42,320 The Loulan Company in Turpan is a little more than 20 years old, 685 00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,160 but it draws on a much deeper history. 686 00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:48,920 It is named after a lost kingdom, once centred on Turpan. 687 00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,440 I am meeting the managing director, Mr Wang, 688 00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,360 in a boardroom lavishly decorated with reproductions 689 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,280 of that kingdom's ancient glories - 690 00:46:57,280 --> 00:46:59,880 good wine, nice chairs, 691 00:46:59,880 --> 00:47:01,000 odd conversation. 692 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,480 So what have we got here? 693 00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,480 That's absolutely delicious. 694 00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:28,520 It's nice to think of some silk road traders having a rest 695 00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:31,520 and sipping some wine in Turpan all of those years ago. 696 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:13,040 With every answer, Mr Wang adds another thousand years 697 00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:16,720 to the history of winemaking in Turpan. 698 00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:18,600 It reminds me of the silk mother. 699 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,840 China's history is so long... 700 00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:26,000 that all its tales grow in the telling. 701 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:27,280 LAUGHTER 702 00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:28,600 THEY TOAST 703 00:48:32,720 --> 00:48:35,920 But some of Turpan's ghosts have much more substance. 704 00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:42,200 The Astana Cemetery lies 25 miles from Turpan itself. 705 00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,880 Its tombs contained bodies over 1,000 years old, 706 00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:48,320 mummified by the desert climate - 707 00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:53,600 and buried with many of them were contracts, records of deals done. 708 00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:56,920 One of the archaeologists who dug here was Aurel Stein, 709 00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,440 so we already know the fate of many of these fascinating documents. 710 00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:01,760 They are in Britain. 711 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,560 These bodies are a husband and wife of the seventh century. 712 00:49:08,560 --> 00:49:11,040 I feel...a little uncomfortable. 713 00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,240 After all, they hardly invited me in. 714 00:49:17,240 --> 00:49:19,720 In another tomb, the body of a moneylender, 715 00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:22,440 called Zuo Chongxi, was discovered. 716 00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:23,840 The contracts found with him 717 00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,560 were particularly revealing about business on the silk road. 718 00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:32,040 We learn that he took payment in silver coins and bolts of silk 719 00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:35,480 and that, when he died, he was ensnaring a local farmer 720 00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:36,800 in a stifling debt. 721 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:41,840 He was grasping, he was flinty. 722 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:43,960 Think Ebenezer Scrooge. 723 00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:50,000 He was 57 when he died in the year 673, 724 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:53,560 and the contracts reveal a small number of loans, 725 00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:56,640 which were outstanding at the time of his death. 726 00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:59,160 The implication being that he was expecting 727 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:02,360 to collect on those loans in the afterlife. 728 00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:07,200 Zuo's standard rate of interest 729 00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:12,160 was a bloodsucking 10 to 15% a month. 730 00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,520 It reminds us that along the Silk Road, 731 00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:16,560 business was done scruple free... 732 00:50:17,720 --> 00:50:20,040 ..and that payday loans are nothing new. 733 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:35,680 If wine was indeed already being made here in Zuo's lifetime, 734 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:39,720 it's easy to imagine his customers and clients making good use of it. 735 00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:43,360 People drank it to forget their debts. 736 00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:53,240 Zuo's ghost is one I'm happy to leave behind. 737 00:50:53,240 --> 00:50:57,280 It's time to leave Turpan and drive for a couple of hours to the West, 738 00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,920 towards the Tian Shan mountains. 739 00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,520 We are at least 100-miles north-west of Turpan. 740 00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:08,280 We've come out here to the mountains. 741 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,160 It's staggeringly, breathtakingly cold, 742 00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:13,880 but we've come here because we've had a tip-off 743 00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:16,960 that there's a nomad out here with about 100 horses. 744 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:18,800 So, I've come out to see if any of them 745 00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:20,800 are those wonderful heavenly horses. 746 00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,000 But I'm not sure what I'm going to find. 747 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:29,000 Before we start filming, I glimpse a couple of large horses. 748 00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:30,440 But they disappear. 749 00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:32,400 The ones left behind look like something 750 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:34,560 from the Shetland end of the scale. 751 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:37,400 Even smaller than the Terracotta Army horses. 752 00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,240 There's certainly loads of them. 753 00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:40,600 I wonder why. 754 00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:42,320 So, I ask why. 755 00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:44,000 Stupid of me, really. 756 00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:46,320 Mr Ye, why do you have so many horses? 757 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:47,960 QUESTION IS TRANSLATED 758 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:52,080 HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE 759 00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,720 We raise these horses in winter. 760 00:51:59,720 --> 00:52:02,320 We will sell the horse meat. 761 00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:04,240 The smoked horse meat. 762 00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:09,720 So, in the past 30 years, I have got more than 100 horses. 763 00:52:09,720 --> 00:52:13,000 'Ah, despite appearances, I'm in an abattoir. 764 00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:18,520 After a moment's respectful silence, I ask about the larger horses, 765 00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:22,680 and Mr Ye assures me that they are indeed heavenly. 766 00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:29,400 Somewhere in this fairytale forest is a heavenly horse, 767 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,600 and Mr Ye has sent his lads off to try and heard it up. 768 00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:36,640 So, I'm expecting it to magically appear. 769 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:40,880 It wouldn't surprise me if Little Red Riding Hood came along, as well. 770 00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:49,120 There he is. 771 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:50,400 Not very big. 772 00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:53,560 Perhaps the heavenly horse was only something Zhang Qian 773 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:55,200 had never seen before. 774 00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,680 A horse of normal size. 775 00:52:57,680 --> 00:52:58,720 Even so. 776 00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:03,960 You can only wonder what he thought when he first saw 777 00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,040 a horse of that size when he was used to such small ponies. 778 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:12,000 He would have known that it was going to change his world. 779 00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:16,240 But when you look closely you can see that this horse 780 00:53:16,240 --> 00:53:19,080 is not in the best of condition. 781 00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:24,320 I wish I had met a heavenly horse that was prouder, freer, healthier 782 00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:25,560 and not for dinner. 783 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:33,320 Zhang Qian wouldn't meet his heavenly horses 784 00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:36,120 until he was well beyond China's western border. 785 00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:38,840 So, westward I go. 786 00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:42,320 Another 300 miles to the city of Khotan. 787 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:51,640 Close to the border, no more than 100 miles 788 00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:56,640 from Pakistan to the south-west, the Himalayas and India due South. 789 00:53:56,640 --> 00:54:00,160 Here, the population is about 90% Uyghur 790 00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:04,000 and their historical connections with the Silk Road are strong. 791 00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,480 Khotan was one of the first places outside of central China 792 00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:12,720 that began to cultivate silk. 793 00:54:12,720 --> 00:54:16,600 And legend has it that it came not as an official export, 794 00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,120 but by an act of subterfuge. 795 00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:22,640 In 1900, our old friend from Dunhuang, Aurel Stein, 796 00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:25,320 found some evidence to support that legend 797 00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:27,920 in some desert ruins 80 miles from here, 798 00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:29,560 and he did what he always did - 799 00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:32,840 he removed it, labelled it and took it to the British Museum. 800 00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:34,480 I've brought along a sketch. 801 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:47,880 So the story goes, 802 00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:51,520 a Chinese princess was offered in marriage to the king of Khotan. 803 00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:53,520 But being unhappy about being reduced 804 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:55,760 to a term in a diplomatic deal 805 00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,560 and fearing a life without any sort of luxury here 806 00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:00,480 in this distant province, 807 00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:03,520 she decided to take matters into her own hands. 808 00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:05,120 Before she left on her journey, 809 00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:09,600 she hid silk worms and mulberry seeds in her head dress. 810 00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:12,640 Thus, the secret of silk cultivation made its escape 811 00:55:12,640 --> 00:55:16,200 from the Chinese heartland and it's been here ever since. 812 00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:22,960 Khotan's markets and bazaars are full of silk fabrics 813 00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:24,240 to this very day. 814 00:55:24,240 --> 00:55:26,120 And for at least 1,000 years, 815 00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:28,240 they've been making it in this style. 816 00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:30,520 Known as Atlas silk. 817 00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:32,960 I've been waiting 2,000 miles to see this. 818 00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:38,960 The silks embrace colour with a wild abandon. 819 00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:41,400 Nothing is supposed to blend tastefully, 820 00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:43,440 it's all designed for maximum impact. 821 00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:45,160 It's so bright that if you look at it 822 00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:48,280 and then look away you get flashing after-images. 823 00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,240 In fact, it's quite difficult to explain just how much 824 00:55:51,240 --> 00:55:54,520 this Atlas silk pokes you in the pupils. 825 00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:56,800 It's as if the colour decisions are all made 826 00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:00,240 on the basis of which is most likely to cause retinal detachment. 827 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:01,600 I love it. 828 00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:04,960 The results insist very loudly indeed 829 00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:09,040 that although the Uyghur territories have been part of China's dominions 830 00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:14,280 for over 200 years, the makers of this fabric are not Chinese at all. 831 00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:16,560 Many Uyghur don't even speak Chinese. 832 00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:23,760 Khotan very clearly identifies itself as a Silk Road city. 833 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:27,680 Everywhere I've been in China there have been new tourist opportunities 834 00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:31,560 and statues commemorating figures from the rich bed of history. 835 00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:36,600 China wants to remind itself and us that in the days of the Silk Road 836 00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,680 it was a place of commerce and creativity. 837 00:56:39,680 --> 00:56:42,200 That however it spent the 20th-century, 838 00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:45,200 it wants to do business now. 839 00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:47,560 And doesn't want anything else to matter. 840 00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,880 Beyond Khotan, the desert reasserts itself. 841 00:56:57,240 --> 00:57:00,480 But today, the Chinese government refuses to listen 842 00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,840 to what the sand has to say. 843 00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,680 They're editing the desert. 844 00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:12,520 Flattening dunes, planting hardy grasses. 845 00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:14,280 Pushing it all back - 846 00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:16,240 or trying to. 847 00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:18,800 More than 2,000 years later, 848 00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:23,320 and they're still not letting this godforsaken place get in their way. 849 00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:27,480 There's more than a little of the spirit of Zhang Qian in all of this. 850 00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:29,800 I can still feel his yearning presence 851 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:31,960 faithfully doing his emperor's bidding. 852 00:57:31,960 --> 00:57:35,440 Constantly pushing westward, making contacts. 853 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:38,000 Each contact maturing into a deal done 854 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:41,560 and each deal carrying with it an extra little burden 855 00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:44,720 of cultural change and contact. 856 00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:48,120 Once he got through this desert he'd come to a mountain pass. 857 00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:49,720 And once through that mountain pass 858 00:57:49,720 --> 00:57:53,040 he would come to the kingdom of the Sogdians. 859 00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:56,920 An entire world waiting for what China had to offer. 860 00:57:56,920 --> 00:57:58,920 For what China had to sell. 861 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:05,400 I'm following him West. 862 00:58:07,160 --> 00:58:10,640 In the next episode, hidden valleys. 863 00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:12,880 The art of the Sogdians. 864 00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:14,880 The ancestor of the lute. 865 00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:19,440 A ceramic paradise, built by captive artisans 866 00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:21,760 for one of the most ruthless conquerors 867 00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:23,200 the world has ever seen... 868 00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:26,400 ..and the Central-Asian cities 869 00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:30,000 where modern mathematics and astronomy were born.