Here to make Monday a little easier =)

After years of application, Chinese portions of the Silk Road have finally been accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Celebrate it by some music related to the Silk Road!

Crescent Bay 月牙湾 by F.I.R. is a call for protection to the desert oasis, and one of my favorites from the group.

Did you know that Xinjiang has a vibrant Flamenco community? One of its iconic artists, Erkin Abdulla, performs his song Loulang Girls 楼兰姑娘 below. P.S. Watch Tong Liya as a dancer for one of his performances.

The word silk is homophones with the word for “missing or longing”, a word play that Mayday’s Ashin uses when writing the lyrics for Fish Leong‘s Silk Road. The song is composed by Wang Leehom.

Dreams of Camel Bells 梦驼铃 by Fei Yuqing  is another song that uses the journey to express double meanings.  The long journey across the desert is compared with the journey to Taiwan after the defeat of the Nationalists, and  the song expresses longing for the writer’s home back in the mainland.

A slow version of Why Travel So Far to the West 何必西天万里遥 is one of my favorite covers of the ’86 version of The Journey to the West soundtrack.  The monk Xuanzang is one of the most famous travelers of the Silk Road.

Fast-forwarding to the 21st century,  Xu Wei sing of the longing, but this time for what  the journey and what awaits, in The Sky Afar 悠远的天空,   the theme for CCTV’s documentaries on Dunhuang.

Yunduo sings the beautiful ballad, My Loulan 我的楼兰. The red dress is perhaps a nod to the red dress of the Loulan Beauty.

And last but not least, one of my favorite soundtracks – the New Silk Road OST by Cheng Chi. My favorites are 永远的长安, 思念与对视,向东方向西方,生与死的楼兰, and 一个人的龟兹.  You can watch the series below, and listen to the OST on Xiami here.