Thanks to the Belt & Road Initiative launched by China, it is now well known that there are three ancient Silk Roads: two terrestrial and one maritime.
Top of mind is perhaps the Oasis Silk Road, a web of routes passing through the central zone of Eurasia from China to West Asia and Eastern Europe via a string of desert oases and other cities in temperate agricultural regions.
A lesser known terrestrial route — the Steppe Silk Road — comprised swathes of grasslands that traverse the northern part of Eurasia, connecting the northern passages of both continents. At its eastern end were the steppes of the Greater Khingan Mountains and Hulunbuir of Inner Mongolia, while its western extreme was at the lower part of the Dnieper River in Ukraine that feeds into the Black Sea.
The talk will include visuals, and will be held mainly in Cantonese with some English. Venue: Rooms S423–424, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Wan Chai（灣仔香港會議展覽中心 S423-424 室）
For more about the history of the Steppe Silk Road – and the books’s contents – see Roaming the Steppe Silk Road, translated by Bruce Humes in collaboration with the author.
Altaic Storytelling 