"Go my students, burn your books, buy yourselves stout shoes. Get away to the
mountains, the deserts and the deepest recesses of the earth. In this way
and no other will you gain a true knowledge of things and of their properties."
-Peter Severinus, 1571 A.D.

Why the Silk Road?

The fabled Silk Road is misleadingly named, for it is not a single trade route but an entire network of caravan trails linking Asia to Europe. Stretching over 6,500 km from the Mediterranean to China, traversing the Middle East, northern India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Xinjiang along the way, the Silk Road served as a conduit through which a variety of products, people, and ideas traveled.

One of the goals of this trip to study the accomplishments, struggles, discoveries, and adventures of early explorers of the Silk Road, most notably Marco Polo, the first European to report his travels in the far east to the western world. In 1271, 17-year-old Marco Polo left his hometown of Venice, Italy and embarked upon an extraordinary journey that would last 24 years, traverse thousands of kilometers and dozens of countries, and alter the course of history.

By studying Polo's travels, and by launching on a similar journey of exploration, we hope to gain insight into the forces that compelled him and others to brave hardship and discomfort on perilous journeys to far-off, alien lands. And in the end, perhaps we'll better understand those same forces in ourselves.

Why Xinjiang?


"The fact that few people go there is one of the most compelling reasons for travelling to a place."
-Paul Theroux

Of all the countries dissected by the Silk Road, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwestern China is the safest and most accessible to foreign travelers. It is also one of the most fascinating. As the most multi-national, multi-religious, and multi-lingual region in Asia, Xinjiang is a modern microcosm of the Silk Road. The population of the province is comprised of an eclectic mix of ethnic groups from neighboring Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, India, and Tibet.

While concerns about globalization are spawning protests and generating headlines in the west, Xinjiang has been subject to globalizing forces for thousands of years. This region thus showcases one possible outcome of sustained cultural and economic exchange, of increased connectivity between societies.

The backdrop for Xinjiang's cultural richness is a diverse, forbidding, and spectacularly beautiful landscape. From the treacherous Taklamakan desert to the sky-scraping peaks of the Tian Shan mountains, in all directions the scenery is uncompromisingly dramatic, a land of geological superlatives.


Image of the famous Kashgar bazaar from the Travel China Guide.


"The charm and pleasure of a map lie in its reticence, its incompleteness, in the gap it leaves for the imagination to fill. "
-Robert MacFarlane