Nearly 7,000 years ago, as the first of the agricultural societies of the Fertile Crescent
were developing, a similar Neolithic culture was forming some 4,000 miles to the east in
the valley of the Yellow River of East Asia, the Yellow River, the mother of China.
Here were the beginnings of an unbroken cultural tradition which continues to this very day.
Only a handful of people occupied the valley at that time.
They lived in fortified villages surrounded by moats.
In these villages, they planted their crops, raised their families, fought with their
neighbors, worshiped their gods, and buried their dead.
Now, after the passage of more than 300 generations, the valley of the Yellow River supports nearly
a quarter of a billion people.
For now, many of these people remain farmers, living in homes carved into the cliffs above
the river, homes not unlike those used by their ancestors at the dawn of history.
Life is good for these farmers, however.
Although the climate is dry, the Yellow River, the muddiest river in the world, constantly
deposits fertile new soil during its annual floods, much as the distant Nile of Egypt.
This allowed the early agricultural society to flourish, with wheat being the major crop,
as it remains today.
But this is changing rapidly.
These farmers are living in a nation which, according to many scholars, may become the
world superpower of the 21st century.
China, the land of the dragon, is beginning to awaken.
The awakening began in 200 BC as the emperor Qin forcibly unified the warring kingdoms
of North China.
He also gave the West the name by which we know this land, the land of Qin, China.
Its capital was at Chang'an, the modern name for the city of Xian.
Xian is one of the few cities in China to retain its ancient walls.
Xian was once the largest city in the world, capital of 11 Chinese dynasties.
Today its population of 2.5 million make it only a modest provincial capital in this nation
of 1 billion people.
History surrounds this city of the emperor Qin, whose burial mound lies just east of
the city.
No one has yet excavated the tomb within, which is believed to be untouched.
However, in 1974, farmers tilling the wheat fields nearby began uncovering pieces of clay
figures.
Experts who investigated made one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries of the
century.
An entire army of 8,000 life-sized terracotta warriors had been buried to protect the approaches
to Emperor Qin's tomb.
It is believed that actual soldiers were used as models since each figure has identifiable
facial features.
When Rome was the center of the Western world, the Han dynasty ruled the Middle Kingdom,
the name by which the Chinese called their land.
The kingdom lay between heaven and hell, hence the Middle Kingdom, and hell, as far as the
Chinese were concerned, included anything beyond their borders.
The Chinese had been afraid of external invasions for centuries, and under the Emperor Qin
had erected a defensive barrier to the north.
Now under the Han, this barrier was elevated to create one of the great engineering wonders
of the world, the Great Wall of China.
Only a few tumbled fragments of wall can now be found at its eastern terminus at the Gulf
of Bohai on China's Pacific coast.
The wall once ran nearly a half a mile out to sea here to prevent potential invaders
from rounding its flank.
From here, it runs a few miles across the coastal plain to the city of Shanhai Guan,
right of what was called the first gate under heaven, the easternmost gate through the wall.
Now it begins its tortuous climb over the last ridge of mountains that face the vast
Mongolian plains to the north.
For the next twelve centuries, Chinese emperors spent a fortune in money and human lives to
maintain and fortify the wall.
It is estimated that a quarter of a million workers may be buried within it.
The wall averages about 21 feet high and about 18 feet wide at the top.
Ten infantrymen could march abreast across the top.
Following the wall westward towards the edge of the Gobi Desert, it becomes a low-packed
earth ridge before it ends at an old fort.
Beyond this point, the desert itself forms a natural barrier.
The wall marked the effective boundary of Chinese agriculture and civilization.
South of the wall, the Han dynasty had made major advances.
Paper was invented and the world's first civil service was established.
The Han also began China's long love affair with Jade.
The tomb of a Han princess was recently excavated and revealed her body buried in a suit of
jade.
Jade is still a major export of China.
While the finest jade comes from Burma, China has deposits of light green and white jade,
which is still of good quality.
However, any stone which is greenish in color and can be carved is referred to as jade by
the Chinese.
Parts of the so-called jade one sees in the shops is actually a type of soapstone.
Modern machinery is now used to cut and polish the stone.
What ancient craftsmen might have taken months to create can now be finished in a few days.
During the rule of the Han emperors, the capital was moved from Xian to Luyang.
Early in the first century, Buddhism arrived in China and it would have a lasting impact
on Chinese culture.
Buddhism began in the southern foothills of the Himalayas nearly 2500 years ago through
the efforts of a royal prince named Gautama Siddhartha.
Chinese scholars on journeys of exploration to the west brought the religion back to the
Han emperors.
Over the next several hundred years, numerous Buddhist temples and monuments would be built
throughout China.
Luyang alone once had nearly 1500 temples.
Buddhism and later Islam came to China over a route that for the next millennium would
be one of the greatest arteries of trade in history.
For more than 2000 years, the treasures of the east have been coveted by Europe and the
west.
In the first century AD, the Romans were trading for jade, glass, linen and that most precious
of fabrics, silk, and hence the trade route became known as the Silk Road.
The northern route began in Antioch on the Mediterranean coast of the Roman Empire.
It passed through Samarkand before reaching the imperial capital at Xian.
A southern route began in India and joined the northern route at Kashgar, just beyond
the snow-capped peaks of the Pamir Range on the steppes of Central Asia.
The cultures of Europe and Asia still meet in the bazaars of Kashgar, which once felt
the footsteps of Marco Polo.
The people here are mainly Uyghurs, although one can also find Tajiks, Tatars and Kazakhs.
The ancestors of these people travelled west thousands of years ago to populate Europe.
Although Buddhism came through here 2000 years ago, it was supplanted by Islam about the
10th century.
The cry of the Mazin still echoes through the streets of Kashgar today.
Indeed one has the feeling of being in the Middle East rather than China.
The minarets of numerous mosques pierce the sky.
The green and blue tiles of the old royal tombs have the flavour of Samarkand or even
Istanbul, far to the west.
Within the bazaar, a blind storyteller always has an attentive audience.
The two-humped Bactrian camel is the main beast of burden and adds further to the Middle
Eastern flavour of the city.
Even the food is Middle Eastern.
In the bazaar, vendors sell shish kebab, covered with the spices of the Middle East, cumin,
coriander and red pepper.
Bakers make cimet rolls, similar to bagels rolled in sesame seed.
These cimet rolls are baked in large clay ovens.
They are a very popular snack for local workers who will buy large bags of them to munch on
during the day.
Inasmuch as we are on the edge of the great western desert, wood is in short supply, so
mud bricks are the preferred building material.
In addition, thick mud brick walls provide better insulation.
Using a method probably unchanged for thousands of years, the clay is mixed with water to
form a thick mud.
Wooden frames, coated first with fine dust, which acts as a release agent, are filled
with this mud.
The bricks are then turned out to dry and bake in the sun.
This is hot, dirty, back-breaking work, and for it, the brickmakers earn only about 50
cents a day.
The old part of Kashgar remains a warren of clay houses.
The streets are narrow, and many are covered to keep them shady and cool during the hottest
part of the day.
Most of the people here are Uighurs who live in what they call two-story houses.
Actually, the houses have only one floor, but a stairway leads to the roof where the
food is cooked, thus keeping the smoke out of the main part of the house.
The house is usually built around a central patio off of which are the living areas.
Although the houses may have electricity, plumbing or running water is as yet uncommon.
The floors of the houses are brick, stone, or packed earth.
These Muslim people sleep on the floor and eat sitting on the floor.
Thus, several layers of rugs cover the surface to make it comfortable.
The bazaar of Kashgar is filled with rugs being sold for this purpose.
This area used to be known as Zungaria, or Chinese Turkestan.
Although historically under Chinese control for centuries, Western Xinjiang province had
long been neglected because of its remoteness.
However, the government is now encouraging the people to become part of the mainstream
of Chinese development.
Many people continue to cling to their traditional culture, however.
Uyghur children attend special Uyghur schools where they learn the Uyghur language and its
Arabic-like script.
These people and their language are related to the people and language of modern Turkey.
Students who do well will go on to high school.
Particularly bright students may win admission to special Uyghur universities.
These universities have a special five-year curriculum that teaches the Uyghur students
the Chinese language, which they must know in order to integrate into Chinese society.
Beyond Kashgar, the Silk Road caravans face the most difficult part of their journey.
Inside was the forbidding Taklimakan desert, the desert of no return.
One sees only a few camel caravans crossing this desert today, usually groups of nomadic
herdsmen.
But during the height of the Silk Road trade in the 6th to the 9th centuries, numerous
cities rose along the way to welcome the weary travelers.
Now, only their crumbling clay brick walls remain.
They are slowly disappearing, melting in the infrequent rain showers and scoured by the
glowing dust and stinging sands of the Taklimakan.
The small town of Turfan remains an oasis in the desert.
Its bright green mosque is a pleasant change from the tawny landscape, but the city is
constantly swept by dust storms off the Taklimakan.
But despite the dry, dusty climate, the region around Turfan is known for its produce, particularly
its melons and raisins.
All of these can be obtained in the bazaar.
If you are feeling out of sorts, the local herb doctor can compound a remedy made of
dried turtle shells or the mummified carcass of a sheep.
Turfan survival is possible only because it has an adequate supply of water from irrigation
canals.
The canals spread out into the smaller villages where the crops are grown.
The canals are lined with trees or vineyards which also help control the wind and the dust.
These canals serve a multitude of uses.
Here village women can do the laundry or wash the family dishes.
On hot summer afternoons, village children can come for a cool dip.
The village oven is adjacent to the main canal and the women congregate here to chat while
the bread bakes.
The bread is similar to pita, the bread common to the Mediterranean region, again demonstrating
the Middle Eastern flavour of this part of China.
Water enables these villages to flourish.
Determining the source of this water leads one to another one of China's ancient engineering
feats.
Two thousand years ago, Chinese engineers came here and realized that the only source
of water for the region was a hundred miles to the north, the snow-capped mountains of
the Tian Shan range.
Engineers dug canals miles in length beneath the desert floor which carried the melting
snows of the Tian Shan deep into the desert.
Now two thousand years later, this network of canals and deep wells still waters the
fields of Turfan.
The Tian Shan mountains were a beacon for the Silk Road caravans.
Ahead lay the lush pastures and cool forested slopes which offered relief from the desert
heat.
Even today, herdsmen drive their animals into the mountains in the early spring so the animals
can feast on the new spring grass.
The Tian Shan are among the highest mountains of Central Asia, reaching altitudes of over
twenty-five thousand feet.
Even in early summer, the Tian Shan have pockets of ice and snow on their upper slopes.
Although the soil is generally too poor for agriculture, it is ideal grazing land for
raising sheep and horses.
Most of the people who live in the foothills of the Tian Shan are Kazakhs who still claim
to a semi-nomadic existence.
While they spend their winters in wooden houses, summer finds them back in their traditional
felt tents called yurts.
Springtime finds the Kazakh women repairing the yurts for the upcoming season.
These people used to move their herds across the steppes of Central Asia with the seasons.
Now, politics keeps them generally in one place.
The typical Kazakh yurt is made of felt and is about twenty feet in diameter with one
door usually facing south.
There are no windows but there is an opening called a tuno at the top which admits light
and fresh air.
The dirt floors of the yurts are often covered with fine rugs.
Formerly, an open pit fire would be used for cooking and providing heat.
Today, the fire pit has generally been replaced with a cast iron stove.
The Kazakh women are responsible for maintaining the yurt while the men take care of the herds.
These nomadic people raise no crops to speak of.
Rather, they subsist on the meat and dairy products they get from their herds.
They eat quite a bit of yogurt and the women churn and store the yogurt in large goatskin
bags.
At the end of the day, the men will often gather in the yurt of one of the community
elders for tea.
The women do not participate in these social gatherings.
Like other Muslim peoples, the Kazakhs are a male-dominated society.
The few women who are here wait on the men, serving them salt tea.
This is green tea mixed with salt to which has been added a hefty spoonful of kymak,
fermented horse milk.
The few blonde, blue-eyed Kazakhs one sees reminds us that some of the ancestors of these
people moved westward thousands of years ago to populate Europe.
From the Tian Shan range, the Silk Road headed east to its terminus at the imperial capital
of Xian.
However, the silk was not produced here.
It came from the valley of China's greatest river, the Yangtze.
Between the 7th and 13th centuries, when Europe was in the Dark Ages, Chinese culture was
at its peak.
Under the Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese art and science flourished.
Block printing and gunpowder were invented.
The Chinese invented the seismograph, a ball dropped from the mouth of a dragon into the
mouth of a toad, indicating the direction and intensity of an earthquake.
They invented the compass so they could navigate when the stars were not visible.
And when the stars were visible, Chinese astronomers made lasting contributions to that science.
Using instruments which they developed themselves, Chinese astronomers charted the heavens with
a degree of accuracy unparalleled up until that time.
Modern astronomers still refer to ancient Chinese writings to determine what happened
in the sky centuries ago.
The Chinese were among the first to note the passage of Halley's Comet, and they did so
as early as the 3rd century BC.
In the 4th century AD, one Sharpei Tang dynasty astronomer noted two of the four bright moons
of the planet Jupiter with his unaided eye a thousand years before Galileo discovered
them in the West.
In the 8th century, the capital of China was moved from Xian in the Yellow River Valley
to Hangzhou in the Valley of the Yangtze.
The city was graced with elegant gardens, and the emperors would come to relax in their
pavilions along the shores of Hangzhou's West Lake.
It is here, in the delta of the Yangtze, that the silks, once sought by the caravans from
distant Rome, are still produced today.
After feasting on mulberry leaves for several months, the larvae of the silkworm moth spin
the cocoons which are the source of the fiber.
The cocoons are inspected for defects before being placed in boiling water.
This kills the larvae within the cocoon and also dissolves the sticky secretion that holds
the fibers together.
Mechanical fingers can now unwind the fiber.
This may take some time since each cocoon may contain nearly 7,000 feet of silk fiber.
The fibers are now spun into thread which is then woven into cloth.
Some fibers may be dyed before weaving.
Many fabrics have elaborate patterns woven into them.
This is done on a special loom with a simple punch card computer to create the pattern.
The result is one of the world's most expensive and sensuous fabrics, a fabric which ancient
Roman writers complained was often so sheer it rendered women naked in the streets.
The city of Suzhou is one of the oldest inhabited cities in China, dating back some 3,000 years.
Its gardens are among the most famous in China.
Unfortunately many of these gardens and buildings were damaged during the upheaval known as
the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.
Today the government is restoring them as part of the nation's cultural heritage.
The beauty of the city was once reflected in the old saying, in heaven there is paradise,
on earth, Suzhou.
Marco Polo was enchanted with this city which rather reminded him of his hometown of Venice
with its numerous bridges and canals.
Suzhou lies near the southern terminus of yet another of China's great engineering
wonders, the Grand Canal.
Although begun more than 2,500 years ago, most of the canal was built in the 7th century
under the Tang emperors.
A labor force of 5 million men and women finished the 1,500 mile long canal in only 6 years,
but 2 million workers are believed to have perished during the construction.
The canal was once used to ship grain from the Yangtze valley northwards to the Yellow
River valley to feed the emperor and his armies.
While the northern part of the canal has silted up, the southern sections are still in use
today.
Millions of river tugs and freight barges ply the canal, and many families live on board
their boats year round.
By the 13th century, the China of the Song dynasty had reached a level of cultural and
scientific achievement that far exceeded that of Western Europe and the Middle East.
However, that would soon come to an abrupt end.
The Great Wall, which had been successful in holding back the northern tribes, was breached
and the Mongol army of Genghis Khan smashed into China.
The cultural shock of this attack virtually froze the progress of Chinese civilization
for centuries.
China would never fully recover from the Mongol invasion.
The Mongols probably originated on the steppes of Central Asia thousands of years ago.
Most are Buddhists, who followed the faith brought to them by Tibetan lamas in the 10th
century.
A number of Buddhist lamasaries still exist in the city of Huihua, capital of the autonomous
region of Inner Mongolia in North China.
The Chinese have always been afraid of the Mongols.
Over the centuries, the emperor encouraged ethnic Chinese to emigrate into Mongolia to
dilute the influence of the Mongols.
Many of those who came were Muslims.
They built an ornate Chinese-style mosque which rises in the heart of Huihua.
With the influx of the Chinese, only 15% of the population of Inner Mongolia are Mongolians.
They generally still live on the vast grasslands that stretch for hundreds of miles northwards
towards the Gobi Desert.
Most have abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and have become small independent ranchers.
They live in small stone and brick houses rather than the traditional yurts.
However, the interior of the house often resembles a yurt.
The main living area has no bed, but rather a raised platform padded with rugs and quilts
similar to that in a yurt.
This area is also used for meals and entertaining.
It would be easy to get lost in this rather featureless landscape, so centuries ago, the
nomads built Buddhist shrines called abows which crown the higher hilltops and serve
as artificial landmarks.
Only a few of the Mongols remain nomadic and still live in yurts.
It is possible to ride for miles across the rolling grasslands without seeing a living
soul.
Then, on the horizon, a cluster of yurts may appear.
This is the compound of an extended Mongolian family, about 40 people in all, brothers and
sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and grandchildren.
While the men may be seen wearing western clothing beneath their Mongol robes, the women
generally wear only the traditional clothing.
It is usually handmade using the wool they obtain from their herds of sheep and goats.
Since the weather may turn chilly any time of the year, the animals are usually not sheared.
Rather, they are combed, which removes enough wool so that they can spin it into thread.
A nanny goat is pushed to the ground to be combed and junior insists on having lunch.
The wool they obtain by this process is woven into a soft cloth resembling a fine cashmere.
The wool also ends up as the felt which lines their yurts.
The women are responsible for milking the animals.
Cows are the usual source of milk, but Mongolians milk other animals as well.
They are particularly fond of kymak, fermented horse milk, and also drink the milk of camels.
The younger people are bringing new ideas even to this remote region.
The nearest town is over 100 miles away, but they go into town three times a year for supplies.
Young people will bring back new technology such as wind power generators which provide
enough electricity to power an electric light or even a small radio.
The interiors of the yurts are quite comfortable.
Each has a wooden floor covered with several layers of rugs and the walls are well insulated
with felt.
But changes are coming rapidly.
One young man recently purchased a tape recorder and grandpa can't figure it out.
The grandson's young wife, who is about 19, is responsible for cooking the meal.
Cooking is done in a small separate yurt and is usually the responsibility of the eldest
daughter.
Food is prepared on a small iron stove fueled with dry dung patties.
Unlike the Chinese, who have a predominantly vegetable diet, the Mongols are primarily
meat eaters.
This reflects on their nomadic history since they would never stay in one place long enough
to grow crops.
Today they do buy flour to make noodles and purchase canned vegetables, but their animals
provide most of their food.
Since their diet is mainly meat, milk, butter, cheese and yogurt, it is high in fat.
Western scientists who have studied these people have concluded, however, that this
causes them no serious health problems.
The climate is cold and the people work out of doors throughout the year, but they remain
very healthy people.
The Mongols are also a male dominated society.
The men eat first, served by the women.
There is an exception in the case of this family, however.
The grandmother is the eldest member of the family, the matriarch of the clan, and she
does eat with the men.
It is she who will receive the first bowl of green tea mixed with fresh camel yogurt.
Once the dishes are done, the women can eat the leftovers.
The men are responsible for taking care of the livestock.
For centuries the Mongols have been noted for their skills in animal husbandry, and
this remains important today.
They also have been known for their horsemanship skills.
Mongolian ponies are still used to herd the livestock on which they depend.
Mongol cowboys use lassoes at the end of a long pole to snare the animals and also prod
them along.
It is summer now and the camels are shedding, giving them an extremely disheveled appearance.
Several hours earlier, a number of men rode off to begin rounding up the horses.
This is the time of the year that the yearlings, last year's foals, will be branded.
As the herd approaches the compound of yurts, other men saddle up their ponies for the great
Mongolian roundup.
These ponies are actually full-grown horses, but they are a smaller breed than those in
the west.
They have thick coats to protect them from the cold weather and do not require as much
water.
And
it was on sturdy ponies such as this that the Mongol army of Kublai Khan thundered through
central China in 1279 and on to victory over the Song dynasty.
For the next century, the Mongols would rule much of Asia.
Their empire stretched 5,000 miles from the Sea of Japan on the east to Europe's Balkan
peninsula on the west.
Their capital was a tiny town just south of the Great Wall, a town known as northern capital,
Beijing.