silk road
Luxurious textile thoroughfare
A silk road is any trade route that carries luxury goods across vast distances, evoking the ancient network that connected East and West.
The phrase suggests commerce that spans cultures and geographies: The new rail line is being called a silk road for Central Asian oil. (Capitalized Silk Road is the historical trade route or the illegal marketplace.)
generic-trade-route
Path for commerce
- luxury goodsCostly non-essential purchases
- commerceExchange of goods, services
- corridorEnclosed connecting walkway
- networkInterconnected system
trade route
Path for commerce
- luxury goodsCostly non-essential purchases
- commerceExchange of goods, services
- corridorEnclosed connecting walkway
network · passage · traverse · crossroads
- trade routesspice route, cargo routes, merchant routes, salt route, commercial routes
- Medieval Historyfeudalism, Black Death, crusades, crusade, knight
- trade & commercetrade, exports, imports, tariffs, merchant
- travel routesRoute 66, Pacific Coast Highway, trade routes, trade route, scenic route
- UNESCO sitesMachu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Versailles, Great Wall, Stonehenge
- exotic decorbohemian, tribal art, desert oasis, zen, palm trees
connectivity vs isolation
silk roadisolationism
Policy avoiding foreign alliances
closed borders · trade embargo · Iron Curtain · iron curtain · autarky
route surface/materiality
silk roadpaved road
Hard-surfaced thoroughfare
interstate · autobahn · tarmac
railroad, roads, roadway, silken, crossroad, silked, silks, silkiness, off-road