Feng Litao, Minister-Counselor for Culture at the Chinese Embassy in Russia, receives the award from Ivan Chaika, Chairman of the organizing committee of the Crystal Compass Award. Photo: Anna Zinovieva
The ancient trade route connected China with the countries of Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe for almost 1,500 years. In the 19th century, Ferdinand von Richthofen, president of the Berlin Geographical Society, called it the Silk Road. The trade artery played a key role in the history of mankind, contributing to economic growth, cultural exchange, and the development of civilizations. Chinese Xi’an Publishing House has published a detailed history of the Silk Road in 50 volumes. This project is more than just books. It is a cultural bridge that connects different countries and eras, allowing antiquity to speak to modern people in a language they understand. In 2025, the large-scale book series was awarded the prestigious international geographical award «Crystal Compass».
A bridge from the past to the present
The concept of the educational project is to integrate cultural monuments into the modern era, to bring them closer to people. The book series received a special grant from the Central Government of China and was included in the top ten popular science works in the «Classics: Scientific Popularization of History» category.
The head of the publishing house, Qu Binyao, came up with the idea of the project in 2017. It took the editorial team about a year to plan, and the entire work took more than seven years.
«The book series 'Silk Road Stories’ is like a 50-piece puzzle, in which each edition is a section of a civilization on the Silk Road,» said project manager Zhao Zhenyuan.
The staff of Xi'an Publishing House. Photo: Duan Xinyu
An outstanding team worked on the series. The editor-in-chief was the famous historian Li Bingwu, and the adviser was Zheng Xinmiao, former Vice- Minister of Culture and former director of the Gugong Palace Complex. The texts were written by leading Chinese researchers and practitioners in the field of cultural relics and archaeology.
In seven years of work, the staff of Xi’an Publishing House had released 50 volumes, including more than 3,000 exclusive images. The geography of the research is also impressive: 15 provinces, districts, and cities of China, 50 museums and cultural heritage sites. The team of authors has managed to turn a thousand-year-old legacy into fascinating reading for the widest audience, where every book is a work of art.
The book series "Silk Road Stories". Photo: Vitaly Shvydko
«The main idea of the book series is the 'revival’ of cultural monuments on the Silk Road. We decided to build on artifacts, using history as a connecting thread, and civilization as a network,» said He Yunhua, editor-in-chief of the series. «We will continue to revive the memory of the Silk Road, using our publishing innovations, and build new bridges for dialogue between civilizations.»
Dialogue of civilizations
The series shows the multidimensionality of Chinese civilization through the prism of cultural monuments, relics, and human stories. It gives the reader an understanding of the interaction of Chinese civilization with the rest of the world.
There are real gems among the 50 books in the series. For example, the volume «Shaanxi History Museum» vividly reproduces the grandiose events of historical Chang’an, the ancient capital of several Chinese states, the starting point of the Silk Road. The book «Mogao Grottoes» immerses in the temple art of the Gobi Desert, where wall paintings with graceful scenes of caravans, dances, and patterns of foreign style are not only the pinnacle of Buddhist art, but also vivid evidence of dialogue and interchange between ancient civilizations.
Of particular interest is the publication «Nanhai I», which tells about the sunken thousand-year-old merchant ship of the Song Dynasty. This ship, like a time capsule, has preserved hundreds of thousands of ceramics, coins, and vessels, demonstrating the influence of other cultures and the flourishing of the maritime Silk Road.
«The Silk Road is the highest manifestation of openness, tolerance, and entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese civilization. From the book series 'Silk Road Stories’, readers can more specifically and vividly understand the structure of dialogues between civilizations through economics, trade, culture, and art,» notes He Yunhua. «The Silk Road is a thread connecting the world. And when foreign readers see traces of their civilization on the pages of our books, they naturally feel a deep resonance and interest in the extensive study of history.»
Readers from Russia will have a chance to get acquainted with the series in the future. According to the publisher, one of the volumes, the book «Nanhai I», is currently being translated into Russian.
The National Crystal Compass Award is awarded annually for outstanding achievements and scientific research in the field of geography, ecology, and related sciences, or for major contributions to the preservation of natural, historical, and cultural heritage, technological developments, and the development of society. Over the past 13 years, almost 5,000 projects from 51 countries have been nominated for the award. Almost 3.2 million people expressed their preferences in the special «Public Recognition» category, where the laureates are determined by online voting. This year’s award was supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives and is dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the RGS.
Elena Ryzhkova