Traveling along the Silk Route

“When a man is riding through this desert by night and for some reason -falling asleep or anything else -he gets separated from his companions and wants to rejoin them, he hears spirit voices talking to him as if they were his companions, sometimes even calling him by name. Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again, and many travelers have got lost and died because of this.” From the journal of Marco Polo.

The Silk route has contributed to the make up of Chinese culture today through trade and its influence from both the west and Middle East. Stories of the Roman Empire, Alexandra the Great, the adventures of Marco Polo to name a few add to the imagined essence of the ‘Great Silk Route’. But what is the Silk Route today? How do we imagine it to be and did the glossy travel magazines host influence in peoples visual representation of this famous enchanted route? Is it fair that one close up photograph of a place should be the central focus and visual representation on that place? Should we show a more truthful picture of a destination or could that image damage tourism revenue?

Ferdinand von Richthofen was the first person that used the terms ‘Silk Route’ in 1877, however the route was around for a long time before that. The Han Dynasty largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang Qian initiated the trade route around 114 BC. Zhang Qian would send his soldiers on Intelligence expeditions to the west. Some of these missions were in order of trying to link up with the Yuezhi people who were forced to northern India by the Xiongnu tribe during the period of the warring states. Zhang Qian wanted to form a relationship with the Yuezhi to gain a tactical edge on the Xiongnu tribe. Qian also would complete the building of the Great Wall of China that was unfinished by the Qin dynasty in order of keeping the Xiongnu away.

From these intelligence missions to the west came the ‘heavenly horse’ Zhang Qian believed these heavenly horses would enhance his cavalry’s capability in fighting against the Xiongnu tribe. In the west, the Greek empire was taken over by the Roman Empire. Even at this stage, before the time of Zhang Qian, small quantities of Chinese goods, including silk, were reaching the west. This is likely to have arrived with individual traders, who may have started to make the journey in search of new markets despite the danger or the political situation of the time. This is the way the Silk route began and then flourished transporting not only silk but gold, ivory, exotic animals, plants, art and culture.
Ironically today this heavenly horse has become the symbol of the China International Travel Service today and there is a bronze statue of the horse located in Wuwei one of the stops I will take on my trip.

The Silk route today is not a trading route of goods but the trading route of millions of tourists who travel the route as part of package tour trips largely advertised on the Internet. Many tourists will travel along the silk route not to see or feel how it was to be a trader all them years ago but to see the sights affiliated to the towns the Silk route passes through. This is due to how the Silk Route is advertised today, while trawling through many tour guide websites I realized that there was no real mention of the travelers that endured the long route east or west however the mention of the sights that were in the cities of the routes is how the trip is sold.

In recent years China has seen a huge growth in the rise of tourism, it is said that by 2015 China will be the second leading travel destination in the world behind America. Tourism in China contributed 2.9 percent to China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 with over 131 million travelers hitting the shores of China in 2007 this figure is set to rise.

With the high figures of tourists comes problems, during the country’s three annual week long holidays—national day, international labor day, and spring festival the infrastructure is in capable of handling the mass travelers effectively. In more recent times during the spring festival of 2008 we saw freezing temperatures and snow storms halt the travel industry all together leaving millions stranded.

This mass tourism drive will also have an affect and put pressure on the ancient sights that will be visited during these periods. There has been talk of canceling the three holidays and changing them to another time to spread the rise in tourism throughout the year but this will affect the economy and more importantly the livelihoods of the people working within the tourism industry.

Inspiration to becoming a photographer came from an influence of seeing great photography all around me when I was growing up produced by my stepfather. The first thing photographically I did was photograph a group of homeless people in my home town, I found it fascinating hearing the stories about life on the streets and why these people ended up there. After a few cans of beer and lots of cigarettes I really established a trusting relationship with this group of people and my day flashed past me so quick. It was in that moment when your just chatting and snapping that I realised this was the life for me.

During this time I was in the Army and when my unit caught wind of my interest in photography I was soon handed the job of regimental photographer. I enrolled on to an A level photography course and passed which took me to university to study a BA in photography at the University of Cumbria. My final major project took me back to Kosovo where I served as the youngest soldier in Nato in 1999. My project was about going back 8 years on and revisiting the places I went to as a soldier. Looking at how the country had progressed and finding the people I had met all them years ago from my personal snap shots I took when on active duty in the province. Currently I am living in China studying an MA in International photojournalism, Documentary and Travel Photography with the University of Bolton.

My trip along the Silk Route will start in Beijing and take me to the end in Kashgar, known as the Asian crossroads. I will photograph the route showing what it is today and how it is used while attempting to represent the route visually correct and not just zooming in to one scene like the glossy magazines do which in turn creates a false truth of depiction of that location.

Traveling the route at this time in Chinese history will be a fascinating time to do it with the economy growing, the Olympics coming and Chinas push towards a modern society the Silk route today will be a large contributing factor of China in the 21st century and I want to give it an honest visual representation today.