Loess Plateau - History

History

In ancient times, some of the earliest recorded mention of this area is from travel along the Northern Silk Road. In the last part of the first millennium BC, after the explorer Zhang Qian's return to China, the Han Dynasty pushed the Xiongnu back and trade and cultural exchange flourished along the Northern Silk Road through the southern Loess Plateau. Goods moving by caravan to the west included gold, rubies, jade, textiles, coral, ivory and art works. In the opposite direction moved bronze weapons, furs, ceramics and cinnamon bark.

Historically the Loess Plateau has provided simple yet insulated shelter from the cold winter and hot summer in the region, as homes called yaodong (窰洞) were often carved into the loess soil; in medieval times of China people stayed here to grow rice; some families still live in this kind of shelter in modern times. During the Shaanxi Earthquake, nearly a million people were killed as a result of collapsing loess caves. The yaodongs that are best known to the world are perhaps those in Yan'an where the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong headquartered in 1930s. When Edgar Snow, the author of Red Star Over China, visited Mao and his party, he lived in a yaodong which is warm in winter and cool in summer.