This book is a description of a trip along the Silk Road, or rather along the several Silk Roads (as there are many diversions and different sections). The disappointing thing is that the reader hardly learns anything about the actual trip. Although the author travels through China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, there are only two "adventurous" chapters: The first is about his various trips through the Gobi desert, one of them alone on foot that he had to break off because it was too hard. I loved that chapter because the descriptions were vivid and very interesting, and I was excited to read this account. The other one is about climbing Muztagh Ata, a mountain in China that is very close to the border to Pakistan.
Apart from this, there are a few descriptions of the places and how they look like today, but mostly, it is a history book - and not even of the Silk Road itself, but of the places along it. There are pages and pages of history of Chinese cities that the average European reader has never heard about - which could be interesting, but not if it is mostly fact upon fact upon fact, namedropping all the time, and throwing in dynasties and wars and battles. Often I couldn't really see the connection to the Silk Road at all and didn't understand why places or events were even relevant.
My wish was to read a travel account of following the Silk Road(s), not to read a detailed history of every place along it.
I admire the research that has gone into it, and someone with more knowledge of the region might enjoy it more. For me, there were some interesting descriptions, mostly of the natural world and different temples or other buildings of architectural or religious value, but that was all I took from it. No sense of adventure, and no sense of the local people - it was all so very non-emotional. ( )