In the West City of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, Qin Wang, a boy of Persian mixed race, started out as a hawker running errands for others. He carried silk to the west and spices to the east. It took him three years to open a trade route from Chang'an to Baghdad. He encountered horse bandits in Samarkand, rescued a distressed princess in Suiye City, and met an old camel driver who could predict storms at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. Ten years later, his name appeared on the customs clearance documents for all caravans in the empire.
