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My Travel Journal By Nicole Parker April12,2010

Today I visited Xi'an and I had to travel the silk road to get there. It was a burden! It was so hot! The Gansu Corridor Is to the west of Xi'an. Xi'an isa huge city.Itwas the worlds largest city around A.D.750.There is millons of people there.Xi'an's greatest treasure is silk .That's why they call it the silk road. April 13,2010

Today I'm still in Xi'an and soon I will be leaving. The Xi'an people play music all the time with cymbals, drums, the moon flute, and many other instruments.

Next I will be visiting Turfan. Xi'an was a wonderful place to be but now I'm in Turfan. Turfan is an oasis. They have very advanced irrigation systems.Their food is very exotic,too. Their clothing was astonishing.There was so many types of clothes to look at. they were made of feathers, gems, and skins.People flood the streets at night because it's so hot in the day! Tomorrow I will visit Samarkand.

April 14,2010 Today I'm still in Turfan but soon I'll be leaving.Turfan was a fantastic place to be at.

I'm at Samarkand and it's amazing. To reach Samarkand I had to climb some rugged passes of th Tiansham Range.

Samarkand was famous for its especially fine paper.Their paper was freom a plant material or cloth that is mashed into pulp and formed into one sheet of paper.

Exactly how the Chinese peole made paper. April 15,2010
 * 1) They cut plants or pieces of cloth and soaked them in water.
 * 2) They boiled the plants and mashed them into a pulp.
 * 3) They mixed the pulp with water in a vat. They hung the fibers in the water. They dip it in and pull it out. Itwill attach a thin layer of pulp to it forming a single sheet.
 * 4) They would turn out the wet sheet and press down on it to let the water escape.
 * 5) They hung the paper to dry.

Today I'll be visiting Bagdad but right now I'm still in Samarkan but soon I'll be leaving.To reach Bagdad I had to trude along the northern rim of the Great Salt Desert and I almost got bit by snakes and scorpions!

Now I'm in Bagdad and it is wonderful!

Bagdad is known as the City of Peace. There are many palaces and gardens there.They have many different kinds of goods that arrive daily. Learning was one of their greatest treasures. Bagdad Was a meeting place for scholars, scientists, and philosophers. Glass was another great treasure in Bagdad.

Glass Blowing in Bagdad Step by step


 * 1) They mixed sand, soda ash, and lime together.
 * 2) They heated the mixture in a furnace.(2,500 F)
 * 3) They lowered the temp. and then they dipped the end of a blowpipe into the molten glass.
 * 4) They blowed into the pipe to form a bubble.
 * 5) They shaped the bubble by rolling it against something flat, pinching it, pulling it, or cutting it with tools.

My jouney was so so so so fun!

The Silk Road

The silk road wasn't like our modern day roads.There wasn't any pavement.The silk road wasn't just a singlew route it had many routes to travel on. The silk road It was so dangerous to travel the silk road because it was in the middle of a scorching hot desert. Most people who traveled on the silk road never made it to their destination. To reach some places on the silk road the people had to travel across deserts and mountains. Some would find poisonous snakes, pirates, and badits. Would you want to cross the silk road? ( By the way I wouldn't want to cross it in real life.)

Q & A

1. Q:Miners used new iron drill bits to mine more what? A:They used them to mine more salt. 2. Q:Paper was used by whom? A: It was used by gov. officials. 3. Q:For what? A: It was used to record a growing amount of information. 4. Q:What is this treatment called? A: It was called acupuncture. 5. Q:Why was this important? A: It was because it allowed ships to sail into the wind for the 1st time.