Page 2 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

Indonesia, and other such discoveries bear witness to this exciting period
of history.
Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient Silk Road
embodies the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness,
mutual learning, and mutual benefit. The Silk Road spirit has become a
precious legacy of human civilization.
—Peace and cooperation. During China’s Han Dynasty around 140
BC, Zhang Qian, a royal emissary, left Chang’an, the Han capital. He
traveled westward on a mission of peace and opened the beginnings of
what would become an overland route linking East and West. This daring
undertaking came to be known as Zhang Qian’s journey to the Western
regions. Centuries later, by the time of the Tang, Song, and Yuan
Dynasties, such the Silk Road, both on land and sea, was booming. Great
adventurers, including Du Huan of China, Marco Polo of Italy, and Ibn
Batutah of Morocco, left their footprints along these ancient routes.
In the early 15th century, Zheng He, the famous Chinese navigator in
the Ming Dynasty, made seven voyages to the Western Seas, a feat still
remembered with much admiration today. These pioneers won their
place in history not with battle steeds or long spears, but with camel
caravans and good will; not with warships and cannons but treasure ships
and friendship. Generation after generation, the Silk Road travelers have
built ties of cooperation and bridges of peace between East and West.
—Openness and inclusiveness. The ancient silk routes traversed the
valleys of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, the Indus and Ganges,
and the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. They passed through the birthplaces
of the civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, India, and China, and linked
the lands of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam as well as the homes of
people of different nationalities and races. These routes enabled people
of different civilizations, creeds, and ethnicities to interact with and
embrace each other with an open mind. Their exchanges told a story of
mutual respect and wove a tapestry of common prosperity. Today, the
ancient cities of Jiuquan, Dunhuang, Turpan, and Kashi, of Samarkand,
Baghdad, and Constantinople, the ancient ports of Ningbo, Quanzhou,
Guangzhou, and Beihai and of Colombo, Jeddah, and Alexandria, all
stand as living monuments to these interactions of times past. This part
of history shows that civilization thrives with openness and nations

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