Bruce happened to see this article in the NY Times about a new exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in D.C.:
“Exhibition Review | ‘Traveling the Silk Road’ – Information Highway:
Camel Speed but Exotic Links”
It says the exhibit “… is meant to suggest a journey over the Silk Road in its prime, covering “the entire distance from East to West * from Xian, the capital of China, to Baghdad, the heart of the Islamic world….”