Seven years ago, when living in Southern Kyrgyzstan, I met a German tourist who had tried to cycle south through the mountains from the capital city, Bishkek. He had taken the Eastern road leading from Issyk Kul to Jalalabad. The road was marked on the map, but it was actually a secondary track paved in stone, which had cost him several tires and a great deal of anger.
That was 2011. Today, that track has been replaced by an eight-lane highway, traveled by trucks transporting Chinese products to Central Asia and beyond, toward the Middle East and Europe. China built and paid for the highway. It is a small portion of what the Chinese calls “One belt, one road” (in Chinese yi dai, yi lu), a modern version of the ancient Silk Road.[1]
This new Silk Road should again lead the countries of Central Asia to the core of the economic and political arena. In ancient times, these countries constituted a true world economic power.
This article is reserved for paid subscribers. Please subscribe to continue reading this article Subscribe
Welcome to La Civiltà Cattolica !
This article is reserved for paid subscribers
Please login or subscribe to continue reading this article
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
Cookie Policy
More information about our Cookie Policy is available in clauses 6,7,8,9 & 10 of our Privacy Policy