...Iran & China Historical Relations Compiled and written in parts by: Arash Akrami Introduction History of relationships between Iran & China can be viewed and written from two perspectives, a Chinese perspective or an Iranian one. Goal of this short paper is to catch a few points based on both perspectives. First of all it’ll brief on the first signs of relationships between two nations in the bed of history. And then a little treat on current similarities and what is happening in the current days. Back in the history Name of China in Persian language written as چین read exactly as Qin in pinyin writing of Chinese mandarin language implies the starting point of mutual acquaintance going back till the time of Qin dynasty in China which coincides with the rule Arsacid dynasty (Parthian Empire) in Iran. However the oldest document currently available about these relationships points out to the time of Chinese Han Dynasty and Iranian Parthian Empire(247 BC - 224 AD). These relations continued further up to next Iranian dynasty of Sassanids and after invasion of Arabs to Iran and continued in different forms of commercial, religious, cultural & scientific transactions. Mutual relations before Islam An outstanding document from Chinese part is Zhang Qian words in Shiji 史记 one of the most reliable records on Chinese history written by grand Chinese historian Sima Qian 司马迁. The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian, who visited the neighbouring countries of Bactria and Sogdiana in 126...
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...Introduction What evolved along the silk road was a highly complex system of trade stretching between Rome, China and the Spice Islands (South East Asia). For a long period, Roman nor Chinese administration possessed direct knowledge of geography, political or social organisation of the other. It was the traders, from whom goods passed, that profited best from the indirect contacts between Rome and China, and the preservation of ‘trade secrets’, such as the sources of Gold and Spices, and the technique of manufacturing silk. This arduous work was usually conducted by nomads of central Asia and mariners of Indonesia, who, as suggested by Loewe as underdeveloped, lower-class people. What were the ecological factors faced by traders along the silk road? In term of ecological conditions along Silk Road, there will be a focus on inter Asia’s ecological zones along Silk Road, which has four major ecological zones: forests, steppe (grasslands), deserts, and mountains. Firstly, the forests zone along Silk Road. The trees of this area are evergreens, such as fir, spruce, and pine. In addition, forests are a plenty of sources of fur, timber and other products. The population of this area is small, which are living by hunting, fishing or trapping and they are not so importantly in the region’s history in the past. Secondly, the steppe of Inner Asian stretches across Kazakhstan, northern Xinjiang province in China, and Mongolia. This is the “eastern half of the great...
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...advances have laid a foundation for today’s way of life; convenient, efficient, and technology improving faster than ever. Introduction of roads, domestication of animals, and the use of ships are all examples of engineering used to increase power, efficiency, and the quality of life. With the use of roads, ships, and calendars, civilizations were able to improve their economy, increase their power, increase population, and expand their power. Roads Romans The Roman Empire’s success was greatly due to the extensive paved road system built, connecting virtually the entire empire. The Appian Way was built in 312BCE, one of the earliest Roman road built. The network or road would eventually consist of over 55,000 miles of road, with a width of 20-40 feet, depending on the amount of traffic and use of the road. Built mostly by soldiers, the use of these roads greatly empowered the Roman Army. Unaffected by weather, quicker deployments, and faster distribution of communication, supplies, and food were possible, increasing efficiency. Post houses to tend or change horses were located every ten to fifteen miles along the routes, while Inns to accommodate travelers, and were located every twenty to thirty miles, increasing the distance traveled daily. The rising effectiveness of the roads decreased the amount of man power, time and money needed by the army. The roads also empowered the army to successfully expand beyond its borders, defeating opposing forces. Without their route network...
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...A B S T R A C T "The Belt and Road" strategic initiative put forward by China, has a significant influence on the development of international society. At the same time, as a grand strategic initiative, the construction of "The Belt and Road" will also promote the economic development of countries which will participate in the project. The initiative involves so many countries and such a large population, which is unprecedented in the history of China's diplomacy. What’s more, the domestic environment in these nations is complex and pluralistic, which undoubtedly plays an important role in "The Belt and Road". I will explore what opportunities and challenges this initiative will bring to regional and international economic development In this paper, by analyzing the implementation process of the initiative, different attitudes of involved countries and several meaningful accomplishments of the project. Keywords: The Belt and Road Influence Opportunities Challenges 1. Introduction The "Silk Road" in history is the main trade route connecting China and outside world and the core bond between China and outside, through which they can make economic, political and cultural exchanges a lot. To speed up the construction of Chinese new open economy system, China put forward a strategic planning about "Pushing the construction of Silk Road Economic Zone and Maritime Silk Road, and forming a new opening all-round pattern” on the third plenary session of the eighteenth...
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...THE ROMANS AND CHINA Robert King HIEU 201-B05 September 29th, 2014 The West and East both had major super powers at the same time. The Romans in the West and the Han Dynasty in the East. Both had no idea how large the other was. The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty both had created strong government systems, military and had vast technology advancement. Though they had major differences, they both made a lasting impression on Eastern and Western civilization as we know it today At the height of the Roman Empire it had close to nineteen provinces stretching as far as Syria. "The simple mention of the Roman Empire is sometimes enough to conjure up an image of something that is immensely stable." Roman's had an emperor which ultimately controlled everything. As same to the Han dynasty the emperor came to power with no regards to the law. The Roman empire had a different way to govern a provinces and a cities. they had some freedom on running their government but always had to pay tax and had to take command from a assigned governor. Then Han dynasty like the Roman's used their military power to take over their land. At the height of the Han dynasty they had thirty-one districts, creating law, currency, a weight system and a measurement system. These systems where to overtake old ones in all of the China. This did not go as well as the Romans approach. The Roman empire took control of areas but did not try and change their culture as much. They still had their own...
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...HUMN432 Week 6 Assignment: Final Draft of the Paper Technology: The Invention of Gunpowder Professor: Adam Ravalovich August 12, 2011 Title: The Invention of Gunpowder A. Introduction: The invention of gunpowder was one of China’s four greatest inventions that made a significant contribution to Chinese culture. Gunpowder in Chinese is called “huo yau”, meaning flaming medicine. The use of gunpowder gave the Chinese a greater ability to protect them from enemies and to conquer and control others. Although fireworks today are used as entertainment, the Chinese used it to scare-off enemies in the time of war. Chinese firearms, fireworks and gunpowder were also popular items of trade along the Silk Road to Europe. As we can imagine this invention had a profound effect on human history and although gunpowder was invented by the Chinese, it gave rise to the powerful western world while it inevitably left China and the Eastern World behind. B. Description of the Chinese Culture (Brandy Miller) 1. Chinese Society: Understanding a people's culture exposes their normalness without reducing their individuality. There are many different realms of Chinese society. China is well known for its centuries of traditional values, customs and beliefs. These beliefs are deeply linked with the language, religions and collective values which have always been the center of traditional festivals, customs and everyday life of man as a collective in harmony with nature...
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...Making A Global Pitch Introduction Advertising is a message designed to promote a product, a service, or an idea. It is designed to inform, influence, or persuade people. To be effective, an advertisement must first attract attention and gain a person’s interest. It may then provide reasons for buying a product and for believing the advertiser’s claims. Advertisers use a variety of techniques to create effective advertisements. They start with a basic appeal, which is the main selling point, or theme, of an advertisement. They then use certain specific techniques. The most commonly used techniques include (1) attention-getting headlines, (2) slogans, (3) testimonials, (4) product characteristics, (5) comparison of products, and (6) repetition. Task Your group, employees of the Acme Advertising Agency, has just been assigned to design a new campaign promoting one of the products of the Columbian Exchange as being the most influential to world history, affecting the largest number of people. The products are cassava, the potato, the trade in silver, the Atlantic slave trade, and sugar. To add to the mix of products, an old time favorite commodity is offered as well, silk. Your group must present its advertising campaign, its pitch for the product that your group is assigned, to company executives trying to decide which product to represent in an international advertising promotion. Your “global pitch” must include a poster-size ad and...
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...Expansion Projects of Karakoram Highway Abstract The KKH expansion project is China’s brainchild and an initiative of ex-President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf. The ambitious plan, for improving the crossregional transportation and commercial network among the client states, will convert KKH into a 90-feet wide expressway for a threefold increase in the existing capacity. The expansion and re-alignment will allow speed with safety and cost reduction by accommodating heavy-laden trailers under extreme climatic conditions. The corridor development project will cost $6 billion and will link Central Asia and China to the Asian highway network, passing through Afghanistan and Iran.54 Further, a 1,100 km long rail-link worth costing $10.237 billion will also be laid, which will cut the distance between Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and China’s trade centre Kashgar to a mere seventeen hours. In addition, oil and gas pipelines (OGP) will also run across the corridor55 linking the existing fuel-lanes of Central Asia and China to refineries on Pakistani ports, and the Middle East.56 In essence, the conduit will facilitate a range of world class transport services such as freight management, trucking, modern dry-port infrastructure, an efficient logistical chain BACKGROUND China is the fastest growing economy in the world right now and its growing economy demands new gates of for expanding. its massive size forces the western provinces to take a longer route to the western...
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...China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Volume 7, No. 1 (2009) p. 47-59 © Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program ISSN: 1653-4212 China-Central Asia Trade Relations: Economic and Social Patterns Sadykzhan Ibraimov* ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to study China’s economic presence in Central Asia and its main involvements in raw materials, transport routes, opening of markets and free economic zones, and small and medium-scale projects. It must be noted that over the years from 1992 to 2007, the highest trading volumes were between China and Kazakhstan, which represented from 80 to 86 percent of all Chinese-Central Asian trade. This growing economic cooperation has a social impact on the development of a Central Asian business diaspora based in Xinjiang. China also demonstrates its capacity to use local corruption schemes and internal Central Asian weaknesses in its own interests: From the earliest years of independence, smuggling with China, especially the export of metals and the import of consumer goods, has proved to be a very profitable venture for Central Asian high-level officials. Keywords • China-Central Asia Trade • Xinjiang • Business Diaspora • Shuttle Trade • Corruption Introduction The main difficulty in the study of economic relationships between China and Central Asia is the lack of reliable or complete information. Many reasons can explain this fact. The Central Asian states, first of all, do not publish information...
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...Ancient Chinese Contributions Humanities 111 World Cultures 1 05/27/2012 In the days of Ancient Chinese, inventions were created using different techniques and styles by using things that we use in our everyday living. There are many contributions that I thought were important. Those inventions that were created by the Ancient Chinese were Umbrella’s. Umbrellas were invented by the Chinese. They made umbrellas from oiled paper. It was made from oiled paper because it repelled water. The frames of the umbrellas were made from mulberry bark and bamboo. Chinese used the umbrellas to keep the sun off of their skin. The common people used blue umbrellas and people that were of royal used red and yellow umbrellas. (This was cited from The Ancient Chinese Contributions, published by Deng Yinke. Information came from pages 1-23). The Seismograph was created by an astronomer during the Han Dynasty. The astronomer created the seismograph to give warning of an earthquake. The seismograph color was bronze and the vase was covered with dragons and toads. A long medal pendulum hung inside the vase. On the outside it had eight dragon heads; each was mounted onto its sides. Each dragon had a ball in its mouth and the dragon’s head was mounted onto its side as well. The pendulum swung in the direction in which the earthquake occurred. The pendulum would strike a rod inside the vase, the rod would then knock a ball out of the dragon’s mouth, and then it would drop into the...
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...An interesting piece in the museum was the painted pottery figure of a kneeling camel standing at a height of 41.5 cm, created during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). This piece serves to reflect an important element of the culture during the Tang and Han dynasty as many people travelled by camel under order of the emperor to go west, in the process creating the Silk Road. The result of exploring the west resulted in a great exchange of ideas and culture for China. The west and east were finally connected. A rather striking piece that existed in the museum was the pottery horse-drawn cart with a driver standing at 168 cm, created during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE). The chariot was one that carried the deceased, drawn by a red holy horse. This horse actually exists in real life. It is much larger than the typical horse and identified by the red color of its sweat. The Chinese believed that this large stallion would lead them into the next life, reincarnation. We can tell the people really believed in the items they were burying with them to bring into the next life because everything was so carefully crafted and perfected. Another sculpture captured my attention as it solidified my understanding of the fengshui we read about in book Chinese Religious Life. This piece was a pottery residential compound from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). According to fengshui, the gate must always exist on the southwest end with a screen to protect the people from evil spirits. Each unit...
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...Huzhou (湖州) is located in the north of Zhejiang province. Because of its favored geographical position (the center part of Yangtze River Delta Economic Area), Huzhou has strong links with the surrounding provinces such as Jiangsu and Anhui. It is the only city that names after a lake in the Taihu Lake Rim (环太湖地区). Huzhou is an old city with a long history. 248 BC, the city was setup by the State of Chu. At that time, the name of the city is Gucheng County (孤城县). During the reign of Qin dynasty, Wucheng County (乌程县) was used. However, the name was changed again to Wuxing Shire (吴兴郡) in the age of Kingdom of Wu. According to the historical material, Huzhou was first used in Sui Dynasty in 602. Today, Huzhou is prefecture-level city which administers five county-level divisions (Wexing District吴兴区, Nanxun District南浔区, Deqing County德清县, Changxing County 长兴县and Anji County安吉县). In history, the famous general, Xiangyu (项羽), built up a city in Huzhou. It says that he quartered troops and led his soldiers to against Qin here. The original name of the north city gate is Fengsheng (奉胜门), but the civilians always call it Bawang Gate (霸王门). The story of Xiangyu is quite famous. Although his life was controversial, he was regarded as a hero in people’s mind. Actually, some cultural heritages here related to him were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution such as the Xiangwang Temple; Huzhou still has vestiges on Mount Bian (弁山) where Xiangyu put his troops. This year, as part of the city...
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...Global Business What is global business? It is not difficult to define this word. By definition, global business basically stands for a business which operates across the globe, rather than just in a country. However, global business is not something new or strange in today’s society, yet the exchange of goods over a great distance has already existed since very long time ago. Back in the Stone Age, anthropologists have already established trading in Europe over a long distance; According to the history, the Silk Road, a historical network of interlinking trade routes for the lucrative Chinese silk trade, is also a type of “global business” back in the old time. Although these two examples cannot perfectly represent what global business is, still, they had the same characteristics. In the 21st century, today’s society, global business has a much bigger and broader meaning, it could include creation and transfer of goods, skills, information, resources, and even services. Resources may include raw materials, capital, and energy, etc.; whereas goods include tangible goods and intangible goods, such as manufactured parts, sub-assemblies, and assemblies. Intangible goods, like service, may include financial, accounting, import and export. It is no longer defined only by the distance or number of offices companies have in countries around the world or how many products they sell internationally, yet, according to an article published on Business Inquirer, by James G. Velasquez...
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...Shadow of the Silk Road records Colin Thubron’s journey along the greatest land route on earth. He passes through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and describes the history, cultures and people along the way. The Silk Road was described as 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. Shadow of the Silk Road encounters Islamic countries in many forms. Overall it explains changes in China that transformed since the Cultural Revolution. Throughout this book, Thubron discovers and identifies the transformation of history that transpired. He begins to reminisce and expresses drastic cultural changes that occurred throughout his life experience and throughout his journey on the Silk Road. Thubron portrays his journey to be momentous, but yet anonymous. He states, "Sometimes a journey arises out of hope and instinct, the heady conviction, as you finger travels along the map". (p. 2) Thubron witnessed the turmoil of a society racing to catch up with the future. At the beginning of my reading, I wondered if Thubron was associating his journey to the Cultural Revolution as pathway to his purpose. "During the Cultural Revolution I was struggled badly" (p. 56) It seems as if he felt the need to face the past and think of what was needed for the future. "After the Cultural Revolution, anything is happy." (p...
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...security borders and gather information. With corruption of law enforcement, also an issue in these countries, the agency combats the problem by giving their officers a salary well above that of local officers. Another problem shown is that the United Nations, rather than the countries fund the program. Countries banding together to assist each other to help prevent further narcotic movements are future goals sought after by the program. Osh and Brussels states that according to their article, "opiates have fueled conflict throughout the region and are likely to have been a significant source of financial support for terrorist organizations with a global reach" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). The strain on security and social issues caused by the Silk Road drug trade have begun to affect the neighboring nations of Afghanistan. "Afghanistan is generally regarded as the world's largest exporter of heroin" and that "there are direct links between the drug business, arms purchases for the country's civil war, and the activities of terrorists" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). They believe that...
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