The Silk Road was the principal traffic route for silk trading from China through the Western Regions to Central Asia, India, West Asia and the east bank of the Mediterranean in the Han and Tang Dynasties. It stretched from east to west for thousands of kilometers, going through mountains, deserts, prairies, and oasis and connecting Asia and Europe together. First opened when Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, it reached its prime time in the Tang Dynasty. Being a main artery of the Eurasia Continent, it was not only the most important commercial passage between the east and west in ancient times, but also a bridge bringing together different human cultures from different places, through which a great number of amazing inventions were spread around.

　　Xinjiang, referred to as the Western Regions in ancient times, was the communications center on the Silk Road and had been a place anyone travelling between east and west must go through. Thanks to its dry climate and special geographical conditions, a lot of antiquities thousands of years old had been kept intact and were unearthed by archaeologists. They not only record the great geological and historical changes through thousands of years and reveal the magnificence of the culture of the Western Regions, but also are of great academic value in the study of nationalities, trade, communications and cultural exchanges on the Silk Road.