A grand ceremony to remember the Silk Road was held in front of Danfeng gate of Xi'an Daming Palace August 16.

To pay respects, some people will ride in an eighteen-car caravan to Rome. The journey will cover 15,000 kilometers over 55 days. The group members took sincere oaths and were blessed before taking the trip.

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe.

The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network.

By Xie Fang and Wu Wei