BEIJING, Nov. 11 -- Japanese philosopher Daisaku Ikeda once asked Dr. Arnold Toynbee, in the course of their discussions in the early 1970s, in which age and place in history he would choose to be born. The late British historian promptly replied Xinjiang during the early C.E. era, the time when Mahayana Buddhism came to East Asia from India by way of Xinjiang, which was a conglomeration of Indian, Greek, Iranian and Chinese cultures.

    Buddhism entered China through Xinjiang by way of the Old Silk Road that connected then capital Chang'an (today's Xi'an) with Central Asia and Europe. Followers of other religions and philosophies, such as Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, the Nestorian Church, Taoism from inland China, and Islam, also came to Xinjiang from kingdoms and regions along the Old Silk Road.

    This road leading from China to Europe was first trodden for commercial reasons, and by the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC ¨C AD 24) it had been made an official trading channel. Merchants traveling along it were guarded by troops dispatched by the central government. As China's main commodity export was silk, German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen named it the Silk Road. His student Sven Hedin, famous Xinjiang explorer and archaeologist, so described it: "The Silk Road measures 4,200 miles as the crow flies, and including its bends has a total length of 6,000 miles, equivalent to a quarter of the equator.... It is no exaggeration to say that this line of communications was the longest road ever to traverse the entire old world. From a cultural and historic point of view, it was the most significant link between nationalities and continents on earth."

    At the start of the millennium, when camels, horses and carts were the main means of transportation, this road to and from Chang'an took more than three years to travel, but fortunes could be made in that time. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), for example, the price of silk in the East Roman Empire was a hundred times that in China. There was, therefore, commercial motivation to travel this profitable thoroughfare that brought about the cultural dissemination and ethnic interchange that so distinguishes Xinjiang from the interior provinces.

    This commerce certainly raised China's early inland inhabitants' standard of living. They were among the earliest to master the techniques of silkworm raising and silk weaving, but the cotton textile technology that opened up a new source of cheap clothing fabric on the Central Plains came from Xinjiang. Prior to the Han Dynasty, the main vegetables available in the interior were the Chinese onion, scallion and Chinese chives. Eggplant, spinach, lettuce, kidney beans, sword beans, carrots, broad beans and garlic, and fruits such as grapes, pomegranates and walnuts, arrived there by way of Xinjiang. It was also along the Old Silk Road that Chinese tea and porcelain, silkworm-raising techniques and the Chinese inventions of gunpowder and papermaking came to the West.

    The Old Silk Road had three routes ¨C northern, central and southern -- within the territory of Xinjiang, along which were 36 city-states with advanced civilizations. Some still flourish, while others, long since been abandoned, lie buried under the desert sands. Their discovery and excavation produced the most important archaeological findings of the 20th century.

    Loulan: Ghost City

    Loulan was a city along the central Old Silk Road where the Han Dynasty (206 BC ¨C AD 220) central government set up its administrative organs. By the fourth century it was the most prosperous city in Xinjiang with a population of 14,000, where merchants of all nationalities converged. After peaking in the fourth century Loulan went into rapid decline. There are no records of Loulan extant beyond the fifth century. Tang Dynasty Monk Xuanzang wrote in his travel notes on his scripture seeking pilgrimage to India, "The city and houses still stand, but there are no people." Archaeologists conclude that a change in river course and deterioration of the natural environment led to the city's abandonment.

    Since Sven Hedin discovered the Loulan City ruins in 1900, it has drawn a steady stream of fascinated visitors from China and beyond. Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of government offices, residences, and Buddhist pagodas, as well as exquisite silk fabrics and glassware. Their most significant finding was a female mummy, the "Loulan beauty," whose good looks 1,000 years later, are undiminished.

    The Loulan ruins are in western Lop Nur in the midst of desert, Yardang landform and hard salt shell where sandstorms are frequent and the weather is changeable. Here the temperature often hits 40 degrees Centigrade at noon and plunges to zero after sunset. The road to Loulan is not easily traveled. It takes several days by cross-country vehicle from Xinjiang's Ruoqiang, Korla and Turpan, or from Gansu's Dunhuang. Vehicles can travel no faster than two to three kilometers per hour in the Loulan area, as every two minutes an average three sharp turns must be made.

    Other ancient ruins not to be missed in Xinjiang are those of the Niya, Kaladun, Milan, Nirang, Khan and Liushi cities.

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