Search - The Silk Road: Beijing to The Black Sea on DVD

The Silk Road, YES; this video, NO.

Alfred J. Andrea | Burlington,, VT USA | 01/14/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I am a professional historian/professor of history who has worked on the Silk Road for over 40 years, and purchased this video for possible use in the classroom. Not likely. First, the two DVDs that I received (the original and a replacement) were flawed. Both came to a halt at the program's overview of the Ming Great Wall, and nothing more on China could be seen. I had to skip to the Caucasus portion of the program to pick up the thread of their travels toward the Black Sea. I sent the second copy back in disgust and requested a refund. Obviously there is something wrong with the program as recorded.

More than that, I was dismayed by what I did see and hear. The two narrators give historians a bad name. Never have I heard such boring, monotone voices and such inane commentary. Obviously they do not know how to speak to an audience, and their grasp of history is minimal. Their so-called tour of Beijing, for example, was simplistic in the extreme, and rather than taking the viewer to a number of significant Yuan and early Ming sites, which have significance for the Silk Road, we got some old chestnuts, such as the Imperial Palace complex (the so-called Forbidden City) and a trip to a restaurant, of all places.

If you have a serious interest in the Silk Road, avoid this at all costs. If you are a teacher and want to turn your students off. Show this in the classroom."