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INTERLOCKING AND INTERCONNECTING WORLD WAS ALSO ACCELERATED BY THE GROWING AMBITIONS OF CHINA! Under the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220), new waves of expansion had pushed frontiers even further, eventually reaching a province then called Xiyu (or 'western regions', but today known as Xinjiang ('new frontierland'? This lay beyond the Gansu corridor, a route 600 miles long linking the Chinese interior with the oasis city of Dunhuang, a crossroads on the edge of the Taklamakan desert! At this point, there was a choice of a northern or a southern route, both of which could be treacherous, which converged at Kashgar, itself set at the junction point of the Himalayas, the Pamir mountains, the Tien Shan range and the Hindu Kush. This expansion of China's horizons linked Asia together. These networks had hitherto been blocked by the Yuezhi and above all the Xiongnu, nomadic tribes who like the Scythians in Central Asia were a source of constant concern but were also important trading partners for livestock: Han authors wrote in the 2nd century BC of tens of thousands of head of cattle being bought from the peoples of the steppes. But it was Chinese demand for horses that was all but insatiable, fuelled by the need to keep an effective military force on standby to maintain internal order within China, and to be able to respond to attacks & raids by the Xiongnu or other tribes. Horses from the western region of Xinjiang were highly prized, & could make fortunes for tribal chieftains. On one occasion, a Yuezhi leader traded horses for a large consignment of goods that he then sold on to others, making ten times his investment! The most famous & valuable mounts were bred in the Fergana valley to the far side of the spectacular Pamir mountain range that straddled what is now eastern Tajikistan & north-eastern Afghanistan. Much admired for their strength, they are described by Chinese writers as being sired by dragons & are referred to as HANXUE MA or 'sweating blood' - the result of their distinctive red perspiration that was caused either by a local parasite or by the horses' having unusually thin skin & therefore being prone to blood vessels bursting during exertion. Some particularly fine specimens became celebrities in their own right, the subject of poems, sculpture & pictures, frequently referred to as TIANMA - heavenly or celestial horses. Some were even taken with their owner to the next life: one emperor was buried alongside eighty of his favoured steeds - their burial place guarded by statues of two stallions and a terracotta warrior.