On July 17 every year, the Gion Festival in Kyoto in central Japan culminates in a grand procession of yamahoko, floats known as ‘moving museums’ because of their elaborate decoration with tapestries ...

Silk Route trade became increasingly popular with European merchants from the thirteenth century onwards. The Route’s very nature changed as navigators found ways of trading directly with producers in ...

The inland routes of the Silk Roads were dotted with caravanserais, large guest houses or hostels designed to welcome travelling merchants and their caravans as they made their way along these trade ...

The history of tea stretches back over thousands of years and spans not only the vast regions encompassed by the Silk Roads but much of the globe. It is well known that tea has been at the centre of ...

The port city of Hangzhou, the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang Province East China, has been a strategic hub along the Silk Roads since ancient times. Known as ‘the House of Silk’, the city ...

“History tells us that no nation or people can flourish in isolation. Cultural exchange beyond narrow political boundaries stimulates intelligent curiosity and creative imagination. The meeting of the ...

The Mongolian art of singing: Khoomei, or Hooliin Chor (‘throat harmony’), is a style of singing in which a single performer produces a diversified harmony of multiple voice parts, including a ...

We invite you to join us each week for Did you know? articles which adhere to preselected themes. Knowledge and appreciation of these subjects help to preserve, diffuse, and promote elements of our ...

The artistic traditions which flourished and influenced one another along the Silk Roads were rich and varied. Amongst the earliest of these was the far reaching spread of Buddhist religious art. The ...

Alexander, known as ‘the Great’ or ‘the Macedonian’, advanced his armies into Central Asia in the fourth century BC. Although originally at war with the Achaemenid monarch, Darius III Codomannus, his ...

From the 7th century onwards the city of Gyeongju, the capital of Silla during the Three Kingdoms (57 BCE – 668 CE) and later Unified Silla (668 – 935 CE) periods, developed to become a major trade ...

The Diary of Young Explorers is a collection of travel accounts from Ankur, Giulio, and Caspar, who are documenting their experiences while journeying from Venice, Italy to Xi'an, China. You can read ...