Abstract:

"In the tradition of the award-winning 'River Journeys' series, this BBC series follows eight distinguished writers on eight fascinating journeys. Much of the romance and adventure of human history centers around the travel and trade routes of the world. In the course of migration, conquest, trade or pilgrimage, people have pushed across mountains, deserts and waterways to form the great highways of the world. This BBC series not only re-treads ancient footsteps, but captures the life, the color and the philosophies that are a part of these fabled highways today." THE SILK ROAD "Colin Thubron, author of 'Behind the Wall' and winner of the Thomas Cook Award, finds an alternative to the China so often pictured in the West. Leaving behind the image of rice fields and Communism, he discovers a people who are not native Chinese but Muslim people -- farmers and traders whose culture is almost Middle Eastern. They made the Silk Road work."