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Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian to negotiate an alliance with Yuexhi against the Xiongnu. Unfortunately, he was captured by the Xiongnu, who detained him for ten. After his second escape, he returned to China with detailed reports which showed that sophisticated civilizations existed to the West, with which China could advantageously develop relations.

Armed with information from his initial travels, Zhang Qian set off on a second trip westward for the specific purpose of establishing trade and economic relationships with the people he encountered previously. The influx of Chinese goods westwards and western goods into China changed the economies and cultural influences of all the trading partners. It influenced trends in art/design, valuable/prestige goods and various forms of technology.

Chinese military ambassador Gan Ying was sent west by the Chinese General Ban Chao to explore a mysterious empire to the west whose power was said to rival that of China.  Gan Ying’s journey is the first well documented and proven attempt at Chinese-Roman contact.
The first official contact between Rome and China occurred in 166 AC when Chinese records show that envoys from the Roman Empire sent by Emperor Marcus Aurelius visited the court of the Han Emperor. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, and blossomed on an unprecedented scale.

Yijing (I-Tsing): In Tang Dynasty, the Maritime Silk Route also were pioneered by Chinese. The envoys sailed through the Indian Ocean to Persian Gulf and Red Sea, to explore Persia, Egypt, Aksum and Somalia.

The famed traveller and famous Tang-era Chinese Buddhist monk set off on a boat from Guangzhou to Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism. On the way, he stopped by Srivijaya, Malayu and Kiteh (Kedah) to study the Sanskrit grammar and the Malay language.

His total journey took 25 years. His two travel diaries, “Account of Buddhism sent from the South Seas” and “Buddhist Monk's Pilgrimage of the Tang Dynasty”, described his adventurous journey to Srivijaya and India, reporting on the society of India, the lifestyles of various local peoples, and more.

At seventeen, Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle set off on the series of adventures through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in Book of the Marvels of the World and Il Milione, c. 1300. The book described to Europeans, at that time, the mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, which include the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China in the Yuan Dynasty, giving them the first glimpse into China, Persia, India, Japan and other Asian cities and countries.

Admiral Zheng He was placed in control of the huge naval expeditions fleet sponsored by the Ming government. They set sail from Liujiagan Port in Taicang of Jiangsu Province and headed westward. His fleets visited Brunei, Java, Thailand, Southeast Asia, India, the Horn of Africa, and Arabia, dispensing and receiving goods along the way. He is credited as the first man to establish a sea route directing the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean worlds. His voyages expand new, friendly ties with other nations, while developing relations between the east-west trade opportunities. 

German geographer and traveller, Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the trade routes as 'Seidenstrassen' (silk routes / silk roads). His work appeared at Berlin in 1877-85 under the title of China: Ergebnisse eigener Reisen und darauf gegründeter Studien. In this standard work, the author deals not only with geology but with every subject necessary to a general geographical treatise. He was appointed professor of Geology at the University of Bonn beginning in 1875, but being fully occupied with his work in China he did not take up professorial duties until 1879.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a brand-new double trade corridor is set to reopen channels between China and its neighbours in the west: most notably Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The new Silk Road is also called the "Belt and Road Initiative" — land routes (the “Belt”) and maritime routes (the “Road”) with the goal of improving trade relationships in the region primarily through infrastructure investments.