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 The Southwest Silk Route is the second of its kind
in China. As early as over 2,000 years ago, China's silk products
were world-famous, gaining a global renown. The well-known "Silk
Route" was the main route for the exportation of silk during the
Hang and Tang Dynasties. However, previous to the opening of this
route, there was already the Southwest Silk Route extending from
Sichuan to Burma and India via Yunnan. Like its northwest
counterpart, it has made great contributions to world
civilization.
According to historical accounts, when Zhang Qian
(?-444 B.C.) was on his mission to Bactria (now the northern part
of Afghanistan) in 122 BC, he saw some Shu cloth and "qiong"
bamboo sticks imported from Sichuan to India and came to know that
merchants from Sichuan had a long time before traveled to India
for trade via Yunnan and Burma. Afterwards, the Han empire, having
removed obstacles imposed by the Kunming tribes around Erhai Lake,
recruited a great amount of armed laborers to undertake on a large
scale the building of the Bonan Route. Passing what is now Xiaguan
and Yongping and crossing the Lancangjiang River, this road
extended via Baoshan and Tengchong far into Burma, India and other
countries. In the Tang Dynasty, it prospered and throve even more,
showing no decline during a long period of time. Up to now there
still can be found many historical relics along this route.
For instance, on the famous Bonan Mountains at
Yongping one can still see the stone-paved ancient road winding
over the sublime and awe-inspiring mountain ranges. The place near
today's Jihong Bridge on the bank of the Lancangjiang River used
to be a famous ancient ferry in the Western Han Dynasty. In the
12th year of the reign of the Han Emperor Mingdi (A.D. 69),
Yongchang Prefecture was instituted in what in Baoshan today, thus
causing the road's further development. In 1982, a tablet was
unearthed near the present-day Yunnan-Burma Highway (formerly the
Burma Road) between the Nujiang River and the Gaoligongshan
Mountain, bearing the inscription: "Lujiang Bawan and Tanzizhai in
Lujiang are the two important post stages on the road that lead to
Tengyue, Longling and Burma". This tablet unearthed at the ancient
stage is a most convincing material evidence to this effect.
During the Han and Tang Dynasties this line of
communications modes closer the ties of friendship between China
and the countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. It provided an
important condition for developing the economy and culture of the
various nationalities on China's southwestern border.
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