The Opening of the Silk Road tells the adventure story of Zhang Qian, a Han dynasty envoy who went to the Western Regions (Xiyu) twice and went through a lot of hardships to open the world-famous Silk Road. Zhang Qian was the first to open the gate of the Western Regions, and the Silk Road pioneered by him marked the start of a new era for the economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. As a brave and dedicated explorer and diplomat, Zhang Qian contributed one of the most touching and legendary page on the history of East-West cultural communication. 

Zhang Yiping, PhD in history from Fudan University, is an associate professor in the School of Marxism of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. During 2013-2014, Zhang went on an academic visit to the Department of History of Texas University at Austin, fully sponsored by China Scholarship Council (CSC). Apart from hosting funded projects, Zhang has published quite a number of works, including the award-winning Changes of Land Ownership and Social Reconstruction—A Study of the Land Reform in Southern Jiangsu and more than 20 academic papers. Zhang’s research interest mainly focuses on modern Chinese history.