Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

On New Year's Day this year, a bright red freight train pulled out of Yewu Station just

south of Shanghai in the far east of China,ing 44 containers loaded with suitcases, clothes and household goods,

it journeyed the whole way across China and on. Retracing ancient trading routes as it rumbled through deserts and

past mountains. As the train rolled into its final station, confetti flooded into the air, the first direct rail

service from China to the UK, a moment to celebrate. The momentous journey had taken just 18 days, almost half the time it would have

taken to ship the goods and at half the price of sending them by air. The new railways are part of one of the largest

infrastructure projects ever which will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and

which some say could lead to seismic political changes felt right across the

globe.

I'm Ruth Alexander.

This is the inquiry on the BBC World Service and this week we want to know

Why does China want to revive the Silk Road? Part 1, Once Upon a Time

Our first expert witness is Tamara Chin from Brown University in the United States.

She's written a book, The Invention of the Silk Road.

She says there are three romantic images that come into people's minds when they think of the silk road.

One is sort of merchants on camels selling Chinese silks and Indian spices in Arabian markets maybe to some toga-clad Roman matrons or something like that.

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