Every great journey outward begins by rooting deeply in the source of one's own civilisation.
There is a kind of epic, and it is called "the earliest China"; there is a kind of pilgrimage, and it is called "a return to the wellspring of civilisation."
Luoyang is a city singularly favoured by history. It is a vital cradle of Chinese civilisation, holding within it more than five thousand years of civilisational history, over four thousand years of urban history, and more than fifteen hundred years as a capital; across the ages, thirteen dynasties in succession made their capital here. In the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian used his eleven most distilled characters to seal its place forever — "The dwelling of the Three Dynasties all lay between the Yellow River and the Luo."
To arrive in Luoyang is to return to the very heart of Chinese civilisation. This is no frontier waystation, but the birthplace of the word "China" itself — the royal domain of the Three Dynasties, the fertile soil of the Yellow River and the Luo. In Luoyang, what we touch is not merely the weight of a thirteen-dynasty ancient capital, but the very origin of how Chinese civilisation moved from "stars scattered across the whole sky" to "a bright moon among sparse stars."
To retrace the road of Marco Polo is to remind the world: every great civilisation deserves to be seen, to be respected, to be honoured. And Luoyang lets us understand this — that every long journey out into the world begins with a deep rooting in the source of one's own civilisation. When we stand between the Yellow River and the Luo, we stand at the heart of Chinese civilisation — and only from here do we truly possess the courage and the coordinates to set out toward the world.
Every great journey outward begins by rooting deeply in the source of one's own civilisation.