China releases first cross-border gazetteer of Southern Silk Road

(ECNS) -- China’s first cross-border illustrated gazetteer was released Tuesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, offering a detailed account of the Southern Silk Road and its historic trade and cultural links with South, Southeast and West Asia.

Compiled by the Office of the Compilation Committee of Yunnan Provincial Local Chronicles, the book contains about 700,000 Chinese characters and more than 800 images. Work on the full-color volume began in 2021, with researchers consulting historical gazetteers and other records to examine the route’s origins, development, major sections and evolution.

Beginning in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, the ancient Southern Silk Road extended north toward central China, southeast to link up with the Maritime Silk Road through Guangxi and the Lingnan passage, and west through Yunnan to Myanmar and India. It formed a land-sea trade network linking southwest China with other parts of Asia.

The book’s 10 chapters cover chronology, geography, currencies and goods, ancient states and towns, historic sites and the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation. Its geographic scope includes Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong in China, as well as Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, India and Pakistan.

(By Intern Yang Hongran, Zhang Dongfang)