Original subtitles

(exotic music)

As a reporter, I've traveled the Middle East

for many years.

It's an area that's always fascinated me

But in my work, I've mainly covered it's war zones,

it's crises, and it's tragedies.

This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road,

in the footsteps of Marco polo,

gives the opportunity of exploring the great historical

and cultural significance of this part of the world.

Its ancient melting pot of peoples and civilizations,

that have contributed so much to our own.

(exotic music)

We've arrived in Xi'an in the province of Shaanxi,

right in the middle of China.

Xi'an was the capital of the Chinese empire

for more than 1,000 years up until the 10th century.

At the time, in the heyday of the Silk Road

it was the biggest city in the world,

with 2 million inhabitants.

Today, it numbers 8 million, which places it amongst

the top 10 Chinese cities.

(upbeat Chinese music)

In China, morning exercise is a serious business.

It's a sport, a collective ritual, a marital art,

and a life discipline.

In the West we know about Tai chi but as you can see

here in Xi'an, the disciplines are much more varied.

(slapping)

It helps you unwind, you have to think of someone you like.

Actually you have to think of someone who annoys you and,

no I'm only joking, in fact, it's a form of sport.

It was from Xi'an, formally Si-ngan,

that the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang,

managed to unify the entire country in the 3rd century BCE.

Which allowed the Silk Road to come about.

All the merchants ended up here,

beneath the gateway of the western Wall.

You have to imagine the caravans coming to the end of

their long trek here at the very foot of these ramparts

before the western gate, impatiently expected

by the emperor and his court,

the ambassador merchants unloaded all their wares,

coming from the four corners of Asia.

There were Persian horses, lions, lynxes,

jade, diamonds, woolen materials, because the Chinese

had neither sheep not goats,

there was also brought from the Mediterranean,

coral and even escalet, a very fine cloth from Venice.

Venetians knew that they had to send the most expensive

goods in exchange for the precious merchandise

for which Xi'an was the capital.

Because it was right here, 5,000 years ago

that the cultivating and weaving of silk was invented.

The fashion designer, Fan Yanyan cultivates this

50 century old inheritance.

Looking at how redefined Madam Fan's fabrics are,

it's easy to understand that Western women,

beginning with those from the Roman empire,

were crazy about getting hold of Chinese silks.

Madam Fan, where do you take your inspiration from

for your creations?

I mainly draw inspiration from the Mogao caves,

I chose to use silk so as to build my career around the

culture of the Mogao caves,

because silk is a Chinese cultural symbol,

it is capable of representing

the culture emanating from the caves.

On the edges of the Taklamakan Desert,

these famous Mogao caves,

known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,

are an essential link in the Silk Road.

That's where the first great vestiges of

Chinese Buddhism can be found.

You mentioned the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,

what is it that you find so moving about them?

What are you looking for in terms of inspiration?

I spent two years in Dunhuang,

I saw extremely refined wall paintings,

for me they represent an artistic treasure

by which you can't help but be overwhelmed.

The wall paintings in the Mogao caves are in fact

from different periods, each period has different styles

and artistic forms.

I like the wall paintings of all the periods because

their forms and styles all have completely different

artistic qualities.

I wanted to find a way of transmitting this art,

I chose silk after considering all it's qualities.

It's gentleness, it's suppleness,

it's comfort, it's spender.

Silk fiber is considered to be the queen of fibers,

as well as representation the wisdom of the Chinese people.

We know that the Chinese invented silk farming,

that was thousands of years ago,

today what remains of silk in Chinese culture?

Of course the Chinese invented silk,

but over the last years, the way it's used

no longer transmits its noble character.

Today what I try to do is use the force of traditionally

Chinese culture, in order to give silk a fresh definition,

a more fashionable definition, more contemporary.

Madam Fan, what was your first experience of silk,

what led you to discover

and be so attracted to this material?

When I was small, not all families at the time

had the means to wear silk.

When I was nine or 10, my mother brought me home

a silk scarf,

the first time that I touched this scarf,

I adored it, it never left my side,

and I didn't want to wear it.

What I felt, was its brilliance, it's splendor,

it's gentleness, its comfort.

Of all the clothes I'd ever worn in 10 years,

I'd never known anything like it.

At that moment, I fell in love with silk. (laughs)

This extraordinary finesse, which thrills Madam Fan,

built the reputation of silk in the ancient world.

But it also lead certain moralists

to denounce silk as decadent and debauched.

Seneca, the philosopher of ancient Rome,

denounced clothes made from a material of such indecency

that they hardly cover the body.

That didn't stop silk being worth more than its weight

in gold, it was a major contributor to the making

of China's fortune and of Xi'an in particular.

The city center is still inhabited by descendants

of the merchants of the Silk Road, the Hui.

The Hui minority are of the Hui Muslim faith,

a rarity in China.

They are still important traders

and they have retained cultural and culinary habits

which are every different from the rest of the country.

The bizarre Hui quarter is very reminiscent of central Asia,

for the numerous Chinese tourists who come here,

it's very exotic.

The capital of the great Qin dynasty, Xi'an,

remains the symbol of one of the golden ages

of the Silk Road, when China had exchanges

with the entire known world.

Since leaving Venice, we've been talking about

dialogue between cultures for more than 12,000 kilometers

along the Silk Road.

But here in Xi'an, the end of the road, Oba Mao,

they're really going for it.

Do you have one in my size?

Your size.

Can I try one one?

Oba Mao. (laughing)

We've come full circle.

(exotic music)

At the center of the Hui quarter

is the Great Mosque of Xi'an,

with it's resemblance to a Chinese pagoda,

it can be considered as one of the great monuments

along the Silk Road.

It was the people of the caravans that brought

Islam to these parts,

probably Persian merchants,

ancestors of the Hui who pray in the mosque every Friday.

We're in the oldest mosque in China.

A stone dates it to the year 742.

At that time Xi'an was the capital of the empire

and the city contained more than 5,000 foreigners,

Turkish, Arab, Armenian, and Person, abut also Korean.

They all had the right to pray as they wished,

and to build the places of worship they wanted.

The most striking building, the most unexpected of mosques

is undoubtedly this pagoda.

In fact, it's a minaret, but adopted in Chinese style.

As is this gateway, adorned with Arabic cursive writing,

rather than ideograms.

(mystical music)

The present day mosque, for the most part,

dates back to the Ming dynasty, the the 15th century.

It's the work of Zheng He,

a eunuch who became an admiral

and rid the Chinese seas of pirates.

A member of the Hui minority, and therefore Muslim,

Zheng He was very much a favorite of the Emperor's court.

He was honored with the official title, Sanbao Tai Jian,

meaning great eunuch of the three jewels,

and was allowed to embellish the mosque of his native city.

There is still about 10 million Hui in China,

generally speaking they don't tend to stand out

in the 1.3 billion strong crowd of their co-citizens.

The famous crab!

(motorbikes honking)

(speaking Chinese)

Okay, okay, I'll take a straw.

Ah, a really little Chinese meal,

of the Hui minority.

In Xi'an the caravans weren't only

at the origin of local Islam.

This Silk Road also played a role for a religion

which holds a very central place in Chinese culture.

Here, at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda you can still feel

the presence of Xuanzang, a 7th century sage

who undertook a 16 year journey to India

and brought back the ancient Buddhist texts,

which he translated over the rest of his life.

He is undoubtedly the most well known

pilgrim of the Silk Road.

Pilgrim, wise man, great translator,

and proponent of Buddhism,

Xuanzang is quite simply one of

the most well known characters of Chinese culture.

The chronical of his 16 year journey to India is a

goldmine for historians of the Silk Road.

It's also the basis for one of the most popular

Chinese novels, Journey to the West.

Which is still known by virtually all Chinese today.

The head of the Institute of Religious Arts,

Professor Yuweiyu is a great connoisseur of the sutras,

or religious writing brought back from India.

What's the importance of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

for Chinese Buddhism?

This tower here has a very important

emblematic significance because it was built upon the return

of the monk Xuanzang after his journey to India

to bring back Buddhist writings.

And this is also where Xuanzang translated them.

He was the one who translated the vast majority

of them, making up 1,335 volumes.

These 1,335 volumes represent a quarter of

all the Buddhist writing translated into Chinese.

(chanting)

Around the 64 meter high pagoda, there's a monastery

which also serves as a museum and pilgrimage center.

The Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama is venerated here,

known as the awakened one, which means Buddha.

How many Buddhists are there in China today?

And what is the place of Buddhism in modern China?

In the world today, only 3% of Buddhists are Indian,

while 46-48% of Buddhists are Chinese.

So you could say today that, Buddhist disciples,

those who are interested in Buddhism,

are people who simply venerate and respect Buddhism,

are more numerous in China than anywhere else.

Buddhism doesn't wait to receive charity from God,

or from Allah, you just need to learn and cultivate

yourself all alone, and you are a Buddhist.

In reality, you need to strive for it.

It's like how the monk Xuanzang put it,

I would rather take a step forward and die,

than half a step backwards and remain alive.

That's the cultural spirit of the Silk Road.

Terminus of the Silk Road for the caravan's of merchants

arriving from the West, Xi'an is therefore

also a starting point.

The relay point from which Buddhism spread across China.

Godless religion for some, mystic philosophy for others,

Buddhism theorizes on reincarnation,

but also non-violence and vegetarianism.

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda remains one of the most

important monasteries in China.

Monks and nuns hold offices here, each day,

in the midst of enormous crowds of tourists.

Buddhism is one of the three doctrines of San Jiao

or three school system,

which structures all Chinese thinking.

It's the most recent of the trio,

formed with Taoism and Confucianism.

It has nearly 150 million followers,

mostly belonging to the Chan school of Buddhism,

meaning meditative state and to the Pure Land school.

(upbeat music)

A city buzzing with eight million inhabitants,

modern day Xi'an well reflects what Asians call

the awakening of the dragon, that's to say

the extraordinary economic boom in modern China.

A country with a gross domestic product of more than

9 million dollars, the second largest in the world,

which is constantly building and investing.

In the center of Xi'an, the clock tower,

still stands proudly as a reminder of ancient times.

Those of the Silk Road of course.

It dates back to the Ming dynasty and was intending

to demonstrate to merchants and travelers

just how powerful the emperor was.

It's enormous bell dates back to the 8th century,

and weighs more than six tons,

it announced the arrival of the caravans,

sounded the changing of the guard,

and when necessary, gave the alarm.

Today, compared to the new 30 story blocks of flats,

the magnificent medieval tower, seems quite modest.

It nonetheless continues to determine

modern day Xi'an's urbanism,

with its square build sides, each marking the beginning

of a great avenue leading off to the cardinal points.

Gigantic avenues, each continuing

for a dozen or so kilometers.

Despite it's triumphant modernism,

the city has conserved certain traditions

from the time of the Silk Road.

Such as the famous Chinese circus.

The troop of the Shaanxi region

is one of the most famous in the country.

Families put a lot of pressure on their children

in the circus, as with any other domain,

they have to succeed.

Distinguish themselves in a system which is both

communist and deeply meritocratic.

The children of this troop come from all over

to live here as borders.

Practicing every day, with strict discipline,

and studying at school in the evening, after rehearsals.

(energetic music)

As it happens, the troop is currently preparing a show

which pays homage to the Silk Road,

as Madam Chen Haiyan, the artist director explains to me.

Are the acrobatic techniques which we see in your show

purely Chinese, are they passed down from

the traveling artists, jugglers, and acrobats

who worked in the stop over places along the Silk Road?

The Silk Road began in Xi'an,

in the Provence of Shaanxi.

From here it crossed Dunhuang, Persia, diverse places,

with very different styles and artistic techniques,

until it arrived in ancient Rome.

There are traditional Chinese numbers,

like the Chinese vases, contortions,

candle contortions, and also handstand routines.

Balancing and contortions are

particularly Chinese numbers.

There is also the hat juggling number,

which is one of the numbers combining and inspired

from foreign techniques.

As we know, Xi'an is the starting point of the Silk Road,

as a native of Xi'an yourself,

what does the Silk Road inspire in you?

Xi'an and the Silk Road are inseparable.

You might say that the Silk Road is a part of Xi'an,

reaching out across different cities

and even the whole world.

Being able to mix this vision of the Silk Road

with circus arts through our staging,

and creating beautiful show, which we can perform

for the whole world, which the inhabitants

of each country will be able to come and see.

I hope this will give people a better understanding of China

and that it will allow Chinese circus arts to develop.

(upbeat music)

In China, discipline and collective effort are values

which are virtually sacred.

It's the message taught by Confucius,

collective accomplishment is worth a lot more than personal

interest, or rather they go hand in hand.

(upbeat music)

Just to the east of Xi'an, a staggering and unique

monument precisely shows the importance and the power

of the collective effort such as Confucius presented it

to the Chinese.

It's the Terracotta Army which guards the necropolis

of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang,

the unifier of the middle empire.

This army of 6,000 horsemen, foot soldiers, bowman,

guards the tomb of the first Chinese emperor,

Qin Shi Huang, who died in 221 BCE.

He was the one who unified the country,

by doing so permitted the opening of the Silk Road.

It's said that his concubines and the architects who knew

too much about it, were buried alive in his necropolis.

Words fail to describe this astonishing army of the shadows

which watch over the eternal rest of the Son of the Sky.

The deified emperor who they are meant to accompany

and guard in the afterlife.

Ni hao.

The authorities have granted me a very rare privilege.

To cross the barriers that hold back

the tens of thousands tourists,

to have direct contact with these terracotta statues.

Or rather, to meet those who work on them,

like Professor Landesheng,

the head of the conservation teams which restore

one by one, each statue.

(peaceful music)

What's very striking is to see how realistic

each statue is.

To what point each face is different from the next.

Do you think that real soldiers posed for these statues?

Or are they stylized?

The terracotta army is made up of thousands

of people, thousands of faces, there's no fixed model.

The artists first made sketches, then they used a mold,

which they remolded as they liked

during the creation process.

They began with the basic mold for the faces

which they would then personalize.

There are thousands of different faces.

So do you really think that a human posed for

each statue or not?

There are a number of faces which are unique

but for the others, the basic models were

reworked by the sculptures and craftsmen of the time.

By adding, sticking, kneading, they worked as they pleased,

which increased the possibilities.

In ancient Chinese traditions,

soldiers and slaves were scarified at the feet

of a lord who had died, and were put in his tomb.

Do these statues correspond

to the famous substitution theory?

According to all the studies by archeologists

at the archeology archives, before the Qin,

all emperors, high ranking nobles, and high dignities,

used living people, or people from their entourage,

to be buried along side them.

But after the Qin, institutions changed.

Statues or animals, or even plants were used instead.

In what state do archeologist usually

find these statues?

When we extract them, not a single statue of

the terracotta army is completely intact.

At best, they are in about 20 pieces.

At worst, we've already had 200 pieces.

That was a very damaged statue.

Today a meeting is organized each day between

the Emperor's legions and the ranks for modern tourists

who page homage to them by shooting

quick fire photos of them.

What is striking in this face off

is to what point the soldiers of 2,000 years ago

are bigger than today's Chinese.

Unless the artists of the time enlarged the statues

of their models, to help them travel through eternity.

(upbeat music)

The first Son of the Sky, Qin Shi Huang, allowed

the Chinese empire to exist.

He can therefore be considered as the father

of the Silk Road.

What could be more logical than this road

finishing at his feet, in his capital.

This stone marks the official starting point

of the Silk Road, this commercial route which mixed

cultures, arts, and religions for millennia,

and which shaped our world.

After traveling slightly more than 12,000 kilometers,

this is where the road ends for us.

The Silk Road fascinated Marco Polo,

and all the other caravan merchants,

acting like a mirage, a magnet to awaken the curiosity,

and desire to continue to the end of the Orient.

It's had the same affect on me.

But like for these anonymous merchants,

who for center were the vectors of knowledge and the arts,

one day, like all good things, the journey has to end.

(upbeat music)