A Chinese tourism specialist suggested that a museum on the Silk Road be established in Lanzhou, the capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, in order to develop local tourism by making a good use a cultural legacy.

The suggestion was put forward by Zheng Benfa, director with the Tourism Research Center of Gansu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, who had carried out a study about the feasibility of constructing such a museum.

"The museum is sure to become a tourism hit," said Zheng.

Land-locked Lanzhou is well positioned for such a museum because the city abounds in cultural relics and folklore associated with the Silk Road. It used to be one of the most important cities on the ancient Silk Road, said Zheng in a report.

In the meantime, Lanzhou is a key transport link in northwest China and a part of the new Eurasian Continental Bridge.

Zheng proposed the new museum display sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, and that new and high technology be employed to showcase cultural and historical sites, folkways, as well as different forms of culture in the northwest Chinese region.

The ancient "Silk Road" was the land trade thoroughfare linking China with Central and Western Asia to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean between the second century B.C. and the eight and ninth centuries A.D.

It is commonly held that the ancient Silk Road began in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, passing through south and central Asia and winding its way along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Rome, with a total length of more than 7,000 km.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2005)