One Belt, One Road
After watching a Documentary about China's One Belt, One Road initiative I was inspired to dig back and see if I could find some parallels between the current project connecting the Far East with Europe, and the original Silk Road. From a young age I was always fascinated by History, and although I never pursued it academically, it was through travelling that I was able to quench the thirst I had for piecing together the puzzles of our past. If in one's life we are not on a never-ending quest for knowledge, then we are ignoring our true potential and purpose. So if you are what you eat, then you are what you do, or don't do!
Free Ross
I was also reminded of Ross Ulbricht, the young mind who brought to life a Silk Road Marketplace on the Dark Web. His arrest and incarceration was the first real attempt to vilify Cryptocurrency. Connecting buyers and sellers, with no limitations, the Silk Road represented a sense of Freedom for all walks of life, reflecting both the positives and negatives in society. Free Ross, they are shouting! And we support them!
The Silk Road
Venturing into the vaults of YouTube, I found a 12-Part Documentary Series entitled The Silk Road. Planned, filmed and produced over a period of 17 years and at the price of $50 Million, the series was a massive joint initiative between NHK (Japan) and CCTV (China). Mind you, I'm only 4 Episodes in, but i was blown away by the images they were able to capture of China, at a time when no foreigners had ever been permitted access. Released in 1980, the picture quality wasn't what you'd have hoped for, but from an historical context (nearly 40 years ago) it was fascinating. It lead me to pause and jump over to Maps and get a renewed perspective and flash back again.
The Ancient City of Chang-An was the starting point of the original Silk Road and is now known as Xi-An in the Shaanxi Province, China.
Rather than turn this into a full-fledged article, I'll just share the content for you to watch. Once I've digested it all I'll make an edit (if that happens within 7 days) or drop a new post with my thoughts and reflections. Take your time and enjoy!
Personal Notes:
The Soundtrack blew me away. , can you do a remix please! Created by the Japanese New Age music icon Kitaro, sometimes feeling a bit out of place in the film I thought it was pretty cool he got to do the score. Here's the full album below!
Once again, thanks for reading and do drop a comment, would love to hear what you think of the project and the historical impact of the original Silk Road.