The Silk Road

[Jona Lendering]

There's a probable account of a westerner reaching China earlier than 635. According to the annals of the Han dynasty, people claiming to be from the court of Marcus Aurelius arrived in the in 166.

I've seen that note too; it's in the Hou Han Shu (Chronicle of the Later Han Dynasty), section 88. However, it says that the embassadors of king An-Tun (Antoninus) ariived from Jih-Nan, more or less Hue in what we call Vietnam. In other words, those Romans arrived by boat, and did not travel along the Silk Road. Still: what a voyage!!