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China's Sea Route To West Asia Begins In Xuwen: Experts
A group of Chinese archeologists and historians have found Xuwen in south China's Guangdong Province the starting point of a sea route to central and west Asia.
The sea route that existed some 200 years earlier than the " Silk Road" is now known as China's oldest trading link to Europe and middle and west Asia.
Chen Bojian, a renowned historian with the Guangdong Literary and History Museum, said that Xuwen lies in the southern tip of the Leizhou Peninsula and was officially designated as an entry port during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD).
A few other cities in Guangdong and Fujian provinces in south China, including Quanzhou and Guangzhou, were considered as the beginning of the marine trading route.
The earliest official trade fleet sent by the Chinese imperial government during the Western Han started in Xuwen, according to the "History of Former Han Dynasty".
This was also the time that Chinese silk reached ancient Greece. Chen said the silk trade may have started a lot earlier than what textual records tell us because a lot of trade was done by individuals rather than officials.
Experts here believe these sea routes may have been explored as early as the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
Boats leaving from Guangdong Province would have sailed southwestward along the coastline to load goods or obtained freshwater at ports in Guangdong Province before departing from Xuwen to parts of west or south Asia.
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