Roads paved with silk

Tech transfers

Xi explains that Chinese invented paper 2,000 years ago. Papermaking technology was introduced to Central Asia in the 8th century and arrived in Europe around the 12th century.

"Europeans could make paper through the introduction of papermaking technology by Arabs. So, it changed the historical process of Europe because papermaking technology made knowledge dissemination possible at reduced costs and broke the monopoly of knowledge by nobles and clerks," he says.

"So everybody can learn knowledge through paper. Before that, parchment was the main document (medium) in Europe. But it was very expensive."

Gilbank points out that movable type was not just a complementary, but also a comparably revolutionary, innovation.

"The conjunction of those two things was what really moved us into the early modern world," he says.

Xi points out that not only the printed word but also language itself traveled along the route.

"We also have a very famous proverb in Shaanxi dialect. We say kelimacha, which means, 'make it snappy'," Xi says. "Actually, it's a Persian word that we borrowed from the Silk Road, and it was introduced to the Shaanxi dialect 1,000 years ago."

He explains that China received technologies, such as bronze and gold forging, which came from western Asia 4 millennia ago, glassware that came from the Mediterranean world 2,000 years ago and terracotta sculpting from ancient Greece.