#27, is that Xia related to the Xi Xia of Ningxia? I visited the stunning XiXia Mausoleums a couple of years ago. Yulin is not too far from Yinchuan, so maybe they are similar.
I bet there are tons of off-the-beaten-path sites in Shaanxi! On Friday mornings I teach at a new private university in the eastern outskirts of town. The girls were showing me their new dorms one day. Looking out the window I saw a mound. Nonchalantly they said it was the burial place of a queen! True or not, I'm guessing that a lot of the mounds we see in this part of China are historical.
I don't know if I'll beat the OP to the area or not. I may spend my spring vacation in Nanning, Beihai and on Hainan Island, due to a friend's wedding banquet. I'll probably have to wait til my summer trip to see this mystery area and Dunhuang.
OP, that's a good website you have. I bookmarked it. It looks like you offer quality tours for the higher-end market. Nothing wrong with the higher-end market, of course, not everyone who visits China is a backpacker. I hope that your agency does well.
@ZHET: thank you. We have worked hard on it, and us all being complete idiots with computers it takes a while :) There's still a long way to go... sigh We are doing well, have been lucky to sign good contracts with some foreign tour operators just recently, after only half a year of promotion. Since I am Danish we've had luck approaching Scandinavian-speaking agencies, who are more than happy to cut English out of the quotation when translating and communicating.
You will actually likely make it to the mystery spot before me. Tourist season is kicked off, and I'll be on the road more or less non-stop until mid-November sighs again
#30,
No the Xia I cited isn't the Xia of Ningxia. That is associated with the Western Xia. My site is this Xia.
I went to the Duling mausoleum of Emperor Xuan of Western Han in Xi'an. It's a failry high mound to the SE of the city. Looking around from the top, I saw countless mounds especially to the north. Every one of those would have been for some historical figure from mostly over 1000 years ago.
It's a historical theory!!! I can suggest you to read "L'impero dei Draghi", a historic romance of Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It's in italian but it has been traslated in other languages (I think the english name should be "Empire of Dragons"). V. M. Manfredi is professor of classical archaeology at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan (my city!). The story is from fantasy, but the historical background should be real. Read the book! I think there will be a movie soon about the book (italian movie).
If you are very interested and you speak Italian I think you could read the archaeological researchs of Manfredi about that argument.
Ciao
P.S.: during the empire of Valeriano (A.D. 253-260) a roman legion consisted of 5120 soldiers (120 riders).
I searched another database (Web of Knowledge) and came up with the following articles:
Title: Were the Romans in China before Marco Polo?
Author(s): Monicault FD
Source: HISTORIA (676): 15-15 APR 2003
Document Type: News Item
Language: French
Cited References: 0 Times Cited: 0
Publisher: LIBRAIRIE JULES TALLANDIER, 18 RUE NEUVE-DES-BOULETS, 75548 PARIS 11, FRANCE
Subject Category: History
IDS Number: 667PF
ISSN: 0018-2281
and
Title: Romans in China (Archaeology)
Author(s): Hoh E
Source: ARCHAEOLOGY 52 (3): 26-26 MAY-JUN 1999
Document Type: News Item
Language: English
Cited References: 0 Times Cited: 0
Publisher: ARCHAEOLOGICAL INST, 135 WILLIAM ST, NEW YORK, NY 10038-3805 USA
Subject Category: Archaeology
IDS Number: 190TK
ISSN: 0003-8113
Pity that abstracts are not given for either article.
A book which covers this theory is Black Horse Odyssey by David Harris. I don't vouch for the veracity of the book but you might find it an interesting read. I've come across it several times but never quite go around to reading it.
Too bad that the TT doesn't have "Thread of the Day" anymore. I think this thread would be one.
#16 is correct about the location. It is located one hour west of Wuwei. (five hours west of Lanzhou.) on the only train line and highway in Gansu. There is a book in Chinese about this topic. And the town's people were recently on TV responding to the idea of doing DNA research on them to prove or disprove the idea.
trusted partner
