Grassland Road of The Silk Road
2 min readThe Grassland Road is the Grassland Silk Road proved by the historians and also a famous ancient road connecting the Asian continent and European continent which begins at the Mongolian Plateau in the east, travels southwest, passes through the Junggar Basin and the Kazakh Upland, and then passes across the Central Asia Plain to the Black Sea Lowland.
Most sections areboundless prairie areas along the road. Undoubtedly, this ancient road was built by ancient prairie nomads. The route of this ancient road in Xinjiang generally is climbing over the Altai Mountains from the Mongolian Plateau toenter the Altay Grassland, traveling west along the Wulungu River and Eerqisi River basins, and then entering Kazakhstan through Tacheng, Bole and the lli River Valley. Or the route is turning south from the Altay Grassland, passing through the General Gobi and the territory of today’s Qitai and Jemsar County, and then traveling west along the south rim of the Junggar Basin and the north foot of the Mt. Tianshan to pass the lli River Valley to enter Kazakhstan.
Through the Chinese history, it is obvious to see that the Grassland Road was the road with Chinese and foreign merchants and tourists passing in an endless stream during the period from the flourishing Tang Dynasty to the Liao and Yuan Dynasties. On this ancient road, Famous historical figures suchas the poet Censen of the Tang Dynasty, the envoy Liuyu of the Yuan Dynasty, the grand master Changchun Zhenren Qiu Chuji and the Mongolian conquerorGenghis Khan left their footprints. Nowadays, flat asphalt roads have been distributed for cars to gallop back and forth along the track of this ancient road.
