About Silk Road Friendship Tours
실크로드 우정여행 소개
We are living in pretty complicated times. Most people in the west for example don’t know much about the Silk Road countries except what they see on the news and in movies, both of which are usually kind of deceptive. Most news for example focuses on bad things, like natural disasters and civil unrest, conflicts and so on. Movies tend to sensationalize things and rarely if ever communicate the beauty of life in most places at most times around the world.
Photo of camel taken in Doha, Qatar by G. Brundage
How then, can people in the world get a more balanced view of life in the Silk Road nations? Well… I have an idea! Silk Road Friendship Tours! I strongly encourage everyone to travel, and travelers to write about, and take videos and photos of their experiences and share them with the world.
The above is only a tiny sampling of the full range of possibilities. I’d also like to see:
- Silk Road Meditation Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Religions Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Philosophers’ Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Poetry Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Archeology Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Architecture Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Football Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Bird Watchers’ Friendship Tours
- Silk Road Journalists’ Friendship Tours
- And so on ad infinitum!
Music and Harmony of the Silk Roads
There is always interplay between people and cultures expressed in the arts and sciences. For a quick review of some of Korea’s traditional arts see:
https://kccuk.org.uk/en/about-korea/culture-and-arts/traditional-arts
The Silk Roads as an art and science resonator
In so many ways the Silk Roads were and still very much are like the resonator in musical instruments. Blowing into a resonator or plucking or striking a string for example only produces the sound’s origin. It is the shape and contours of the resonator that modulates and amplifies the harmony of sounds. Around how many camp fires at night, or aboard how many ships did for example music, medicine and martial arts get shared between nations and cultures around the Silk Roads?
Take for example the Chinese Guqin. In Korea there are similar instruments and two-way exchange of melodies for example are inevitable between any nations and cultures that trade or communicate in any way, with music being one of the most potent and fun forces of exchange.
In the west there is a belief in the musica universalis (literally universal music), also called music of the spheres or harmony of the spheres; a philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies – the stars, sun, moon, and planets – as forms of music. These concepts are reflected in many even more ancient African and Asian philosophies.
Everything in one form or another can be found along the Silk Roads
Blue diamonds anyone? If you’re looking for rubies, emeralds, sapphires, spinals or other precious and semi-precious stones you might want to stop at JTC in Bangkok, the world’s largest, tallest and one of the least expensive gem trading centers anywhere. It is no exaggeration to write that THE SILK ROADS HAVE IT ALL!
So, why not do a gem and jewelry Friendship Tour?
Or, how about a…
Triathlon Friendship Tour? I love triathlons and don’t think of them as exercise. I don’t like exercise. But, I love swimming, biking and jogging merrily along and so built the only multi-association internet site for triathlon in English while I lived in China.
Remember…
What’s so great about the Silk Roads?
- They were and remain the heart of the world.
- Most of the world’s people live along the Silk Roads.
- When one considers the Silk Roads connect to Africa, the Middle East and Greece and Rome in the west, civilization started and spread out from the Silk Roads.
- Most of the world’s natural resources are found in Silk Road countries.
https://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/global-resources-outlook
The best book about the history of the Silk Roads I’ve read so far is by Professor Peter Frankopan, of Oxford University.
It’s been translated into many languages and the author’s site can be accessed by clicking HERE. If you haven’t read a good book in a while, this is the world’s most dramatic story.
ENOUGH of the doom and gloom. Work on something positive and you’ll be “right as rain” in a jiffy!
Some really, really good news: The visitor to this site is cordially invited to collaborate on any of the above Silk Road Friendship Tour projects. There are a hundred ways anyone can join in on this bridge-building endeavor. How? Take a look at the “Collaboration” page on the Navigation bar (Menu) at the top of the page.
“Peace (with dignity) and love to all.” – Coach Stone
Note: Someone wrote and asked if I am a tour company or travel guide. The answer is “No.” So far all of my Silk Road travels, articles, books, internet sites etc., have been entirely paid for by my work teaching. I’ve never earned a penny from martial arts or my Silk Road travels.
I am planning to try to get the Silk Road Friendship Tours registered as a not-for-profit company in the US, China, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. Why non-profit? This is a niche-market Silk Road travel and media project. Most tour companies are not prepared for the vast majority of niche market interest areas, like Taekwondo and other specific martial arts. But, I’m happy to help those interested in cooperating in any of these ventures as long as their projects are ethical, legal, and at least somewhat entertaining. I was a journalist and reporter for decades, and can sometimes assist a little in travelers getting the interviews they need to make their Silk Road travels an educational and marketable media project, even if it is not-for-profit.
As a demonstration of my commitment to this theme, please visit my Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour site via this link, or just click on the logo below.
Finally, I want to say thanks to the many people who have helped in this project.
Thanks!
Most sincere thanks to:
- my parents, martial art teachers, and other members of the Wulin (武林 Martial Art Circles) worldwide, for without whom I would not be who I am. My great Taekwondo teachers include Mr. Li (then 6th Dan), who taught at the downtown YMCA in Milwaukee 1970 (to I don’t know when), the masters I learned from in South America, Guy Stowell, who also taught Yoga and Tai Chi, also John Carini who was a real master in the mid to late 1970s and many more.
- the hundreds, if not thousands of people who helped me along the roads. Without them this site never would have come to fruition.
- I also wanna say thanks to fiverr.com for the design of my original logo. Though it cost $35, a vast fortune for me being retired, unemployed and working on non-profit projects, it was worth it. Also, I’d like to thank “Mock of fun” internet site for providing templates to construct my many new logos. Attribution is required for use of their site, and I’m happy to do it. It’s a great, user-friendly site.
- I also want to say thanks to the people at Unsplash and Pixabay for free use of images.
C U on the Roads!
Silk Road Taekwondo Friendship Tour 