My name is Jian, Jian Bai. I have wanted to travel throughout China for years, striving to explore the world in which I live. I’ve always had a passion for exploring. As a child, my mother never allowed me go far away from the house, so I suppose it was my confinement to my own yard that brought me to my enthusiasm of exploring the unknown. My father died when I was too young to remember and left a silk industry to my mother and I. When my mother passed away 6 years ago, I had nothing left except for the silk market that was left behind. I decided I would embark across China, selling silk as I went and exploring the Silk Road. I made sure to bring paper with me because the invention of paper has revolutionized the Silk Road by allowing ideas to spread freely. Without paper, I would not be able to write this journal.