Chang'an and the Silk Road

In 138 BC the Han court sent the envoy Zhang Qian west from Chang'an, opening contacts that grew into the overland Silk Road. Under the Tang dynasty Chang'an was among the largest cities in the world, home to Sogdian merchants, Buddhist monks and a Christian church. The monk Xuanzang brought Indian scriptures back here in 645 and translated them at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.