The Chinese Section of the Silk Roads

Description

Land Route of the Silk Roads

Sea Route of the Silk Roads

The Chinese Section of the Silk Roads includes the Land Route and Sea Route. The Land Route is the ancient trade route that starts from ancient Chang'an, the present-day Xi'an city and the center of politics, economy, and culture in a long period of ancient China. It refers to the overland commercial route connecting Asia. Africa and Europe, which goes over the Longshan Mountain, follows Ilexi Corridor, passes Yumen Pass and Yang Pass, reaches Xinjiang, stretches along the oasis and the Pamir Plateau, enters the Central Asia, crosses Central Asia. Western Asia and Southern Asia, and then leads to Africa and Europe. It also served as an important trunk road where the economic, political and cultural exchanges between the East and the West were taking place. In its very beginning the function of the trade route is to transport silk---the fine, delicate, elegant and portable goods---representing the civilization of ancient China, which enjoyed advanced agriculture and well-developed handicraft industry. Therefore, when the name of "Silk Roads" was first given by the German geographer Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen in the 1870s, it was widely accepted.

The Sea Route of Silk Roads is the maritime trade route connecting the East and the West, by taking advantage of monsoon, ocean currents and traditional navigation technologies. Geographically, the cultural heritage of Sea Route of Silk Roads in China were distributed along the coastal lines and particularly represented by the sea port cities like Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo and Nanjing. To fulfill its function as ports, these cities had established a comprehensive eco-system including production facilities, docks, shipyards, warehouse, navigational facilities, maritime trade markets, etc. Consequently, considerable cultural monuments and sites were derived from the flourished maritime trade, urban life and cultural exchange. Chronologically, the period of Sea Route of Silk Roads covers from the Qin and Han Dynasties of China (BC 221-AD 220) to middle 19th century, when the steamship began to replace the sailboat and greatly changed the ancient navigational activities.

The Chinese Section of Sea Route of the Silk Roads can be viewed as a cultural bridge linking different regions and nations with rich historical information. Among the heritage sites along the route, the port cities like Quanzhou. Guangzhou, Ningbo and Nanjing stand as the most important junctions. The well preserved monuments and sites in these cities embody the cultural communication among different civilizations, and witnessed the great historical events like Zhenghe's Navigation, Marco Polo's Travel, and Monk Jianzhen's Sailing to ancient Japan, etc..

The Silk Roads had been playing the role of a bridge linking the economies and cultures between the ancient East and West. In the process of its formation and development, the major religions and cultures in the ancient world made plenty of communications, exchanges and amalgamations, which boosted the human being to create splendid and influential civilization and left behind valuable cultural heritage. These heritage sites can provoke and encourage the human beings to better understand the diversity. coexistence and communication of different civilizations along this magnificent route.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

Criterion (i): As a route connecting the East and the West, the Silk Roads starts early and lasts for a long time. It is not only a trade route, but also a route of technological communication and exchange of minds. It exhibits the creative spirit of human kind.

Criterion (ii): The Chinese Section of the Silk Roads is an excellent example for coexisting, communication and melting of multi-cultures. Many kinds of technologies, thoughts and religions are all introduced and spread along the route. That enriches the connotation and value of Silk Roads.

Criterion (iii): Due to special geographic and natural situations, cave temples, ancient buildings, city sites, tombs as well as sea ports have been preserved intensively along the Chinese Section of the Silk Roads. They are typical tangible heritage of civilizations influenced by inter-communications between the East and the West in ancient times. With their outstanding universality and representativeness, they are epitomes for cultures within the whole Silk Roads, to a certain extent.

Criterion (iv): The cities and architectures along the Silk Roads embody the impact of the exchange of multi-culture, and witness the development of urban planning and architecture design in the context of the culture exchange between the East and the West.

Criterion (v): The urban planning, building construction, as well as complicated water management systems, embody the talent of ancient people to respect and utilize the nature. On the other hand, the shipyard and other maritime sites witnessed the genius exploitation of monsoon, ocean current by ancient people.

Criterion (vi): Cultural heritage along the Chinese Section of the Silk Roads are tangible samples for the localization of exotic cultures. The typical example is the introduction of Buddhism and its art into Chinese culture. Hence the evolving process and localization of exotic cultures, religions, art and especially Buddhist and other religious art are all widely recorded and preserved along the Silk Roads.

Thereby, given all that, the important status and prominent value of the Chinese Section of the Silk Roads are in accordance with all the 6 criterions on cultural heritage of the World Heritage, i.e. criteria i, ii, iii, iv, v and vi, etc.

Statements of authenticity and/or integrity

The monuments and sites along the Chinese Section of the Silk Roads, though they are over a thousand years old, are well preserved in terms of authenticity and integrity. The construction, restoration and/or conservation of the nominated items were clearly recorded, and is attested by relevant historical records including massive literatures, archives and maps, as well as archeological data. Thus, the nominated serial property has a high degree of authenticity.

The comprehensive types of nominated sites, including production facilities, transportation systems and outcomes of cultural exchange, can fully represent the outstanding universal values of the route. The component sites of the nominated property have a relatively high degree of integrity in terms of the heritage value attributes, state of conservation of the sites and their settings.

The impact factors, including threats of natural factors and pressure of urban construction and tourism development have been efficiently controlled, prevented and mitigated, by means of formulating and implementing administrative regulations, and carrying out heritage conservation/management plans and other measures. Thus, the nominated serial property has a high degree of integrity.

Comparison with other similar properties

Compared with other huge-scale serial nominations of World Heritage, Chinese Section of the Silk Roads exists nearly 2000 years, and extends over thousands of kilometers. The combination of the long history and enormous spacial scale can be hardly equalled.

Chinese Section of the Silk Roads is not only a trade route, but also a cultural route, a religious route and a political route. The richness of its value is special and rare.

The abundant types of the component parts, including capital cities, palaces, cave temples, forts, passes, watch towers, posthouse, inscriptions, docks, warehouse, workshops, markets, mosques, cemeteries, etc. can hardly be compared with.