false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177409819m/701596.jpg 701596 10 <p> <i>Shadow of the Silk Road</i> records a journey along the greatest land route on earth. Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran and into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron covers some seven thousand miles in eight months. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart and camel, he travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people, to the ancient port of Antioch&#8212;in perhaps the most difficult and ambitious journey he has undertaken in forty years of travel. </p> <p> The Silk Road is a huge network of arteries splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. To travel it is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions and inventions. But alongside this rich and astonishing past, <i>Shadow of the Silk Road</i> is also about Asia today: a continent of upheaval. </p> <p> One of the trademarks of Colin Thubron's travel writing is the beauty of his prose; another is his gift for talking to people and getting them to talk to him. <i>Shadow of the Silk Road</i> encounters Islamic countries in many forms. It is about changes in China, transformed since the Cultural Revolution. It is about false nationalisms and the world's discontented margins, where the true boundaries are not political borders but the frontiers of tribe, ethnicity, language and religion. It is a magnificent and important account of an ancient world in modern ferment. </p> 1443190 2006 Shadow of the Silk Road total:258|5:56|4:101|3:67|2:24|1:10| 258 943 641 88 3 2 false false Mon Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 11:39:01 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 05:59:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat May 31 08:44:12 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 08:50:01 -0700 2008 Shadow of the Silk Road is a phenomenal book. The author, British travel writer Colin Thubron, traveled from Xian, an ancient capital of China, to Antioch in Turkey along the silk road, blending broad historical knowledge with acute observations of contemporary life.

Thubron speaks Mandar...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 03 14:32:14 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 10:42:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 14 16:29:31 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 16:29:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 10 04:13:16 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 04:16:01 -0800 2009 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jul 30 21:27:02 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 17:09:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 01:06:04 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 20:19:01 -0700 2009 1
Thubron undertook most of the travel, from central China to the Mediterranean, in 2003, repeating a journey he had...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 10:01:42 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:01:42 -0800 2009 Colin Thubron has spent a lifetime exploring Asia, and he displays his significant regional knowledge and experience in Shadow of the Silk Road. Universally acknowledged as one of our best living travel writers, Thubron brings to this book the astute perception for which he is known and the beautifu...

more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 04 18:28:19 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 18:44:15 -0800 2009 Much of the writing was beautifully description, but it was too detailed description, so became a slog. Everyone agreed that it was a chore to wade through pages of detail about the difficult travels through former sil...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 28 01:12:21 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 11 13:45:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 13:43:27 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 13:09:43 -0700 2009
I do like his place and people descriptions-I feel...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Sep 29 20:16:41 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 20:38:28 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 03 18:17:19 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 18:30:31 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jul 24 19:22:23 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 19:22:34 -0700 2009


I loved the ancien...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 04 08:53:02 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 08:58:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 05:12:14 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 05:32:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 04:02:23 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 02:55:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Apr 10 09:34:05 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 09:38:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 07 00:00:21 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 09:54:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 17:31:53 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 17:32:59 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=701596