THE SILK ROAD

In Marco Polo’s book, Travels, he said,

"When a man is riding through this desert by night and for some reason -falling asleep or anything else -he gets separated from his companions and wants to rejoin them, he hears spirit voices talking to him as if they were his companions, sometimes even calling him by name. Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again, and many travelers have got lost and died because of this. Sometimes in the night travelers hear a noise like the clatter of a great company of riders away from the road; if they believe that these are some of their own company and head for the noise, they find themselves in deep trouble when daylight comes and they realize their mistake. There were some who, in crossing the desert, have been a host of men coming towards them and, suspecting that they were robbers, returning, they have gone hopelessly astray....Even by daylight men hear these spirit voices, and often you fancy you are listening to the strains of many instruments, especially drums, and the clash of arms. For this reason bands of travelers make a point of keeping very close together. Before they go to sleep they set up a sign pointing in the direction in which they have to travel, and round the necks of all their beasts they fasten little bells, so that by listening to the sound they may prevent them from straying off the path."Marco Polo grew up without his parents on his side. His father just appeared when he was about 9-12 years of age. His father, a noble indeed, captivated his heart through the stories of wealth possessed by the eastern lands. His youthful dreams began until it became a great history. Whether a tale or not, Marco Polo and his book were already engraved in the tombstone of history.

Contribution:

True or not, his book became the bestseller during his time. It captured the hearts of the readers especially the Westerners. Traversing thousands of miles mostly on horseback through vast deserts, over steep mountain passes, exposed to extreme weathers, wild animals, and uncivilized tribesmen, these experiences as story-telled in his book turned to be a great source of influential drive.
Experts conducting research on Marco Polo and his book learned that most of the contents of the book were evident as confirmed by the travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Examples were his countries he described which actually did exist. Another contribution of Marco Polo was his information on his book which was incorporated in some important maps of the later Middle Ages. This information was also essential to the famous Henry the Navigator and Columbus. His system of measuring distances by days’ journey was remarkably accurate.

(from a source):

However Marco Polo's best achievement is best said with his own words in his own book:
“I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice."

Thirty (30) years after he return home, Marco still owned a quantity of cloths, valuable pieces, coverings, brocades of silk and gold, exactly like those mentioned several times in his book.
Some critics question the authenticity of his account. Many of his stories have been considered as fairytales. His book (Travels) made no mention about the Great Wall were in fact, this could possibly be the very first thing he has noticed. While traveled extensively in China, Marco Polo never learned the Chinese language nor mentioned a number of articles which are part of everyday life, such as women's foot-binding, calligraphy, or tea. In additional, Marco Polo's name was never occurred in the Annals of the Empire (Yuan Shih), which recorded the names of foreign visitors far less important and illustrious than the three Venetians. So did Marco Polo ever go to China?

At his deathbed, he left the famous epitaph for the world: "I have only told the half of what I saw!"

Sven Hedin

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden; an explorer of Asia, writer, and geographer.
He met Mille Broman, his great love, but because of the call of his duty and his own desire to find the missing piece of the East-West trade, he left Mille.
"The whole of Asia was open before me. I felt that I had been called to make discoveries without limits – they just waited for me in the middle of the deserts and mountain peaks. During those three years, that my journey took, my first guiding principle was to explore only such regions, where nobody else had been earlier," Hedin said. In his account of his famous journey through Asia (1898) Hedin described how he saved one of his servants by bringing him water in his boots. Later he returned to this episode several times in his drawings and writings. He charted maps of significant areas in Pamir, Taklamakan, Tibet, and Transhimalaya (also called Hedin Mountains). Hedin became a member of the Swedish Academy. During World War I Hedin was on Germany's side. This was prevented further explorations. He was also against the leadership of Hitler which later became the cause of his imprisonment. On his table he still had a photograph of Mille Lindström, stuck inside a small religious calendar. Hedin's excellent panoramic drawings have been of significant help, even up to the latest decades, in interpreting satellite photographs.]

Lesson:

Throughout Hedin’s search of the Silk Road, he manifested his great endurance and will to make one more step even if the situations were sometimes against him. While in the desert, his heart was alone since the woman she loves so well was engaged with another man, but he his desire to continue his search through that uncharted desert, never left him. It was indeed a matter of life and death going to the other end of the desert, but he never give up. His attitude of finding the other pole though seemingly impossible stood out.

In life, things that are happening around us are just part of changes, much as we like them or not. What matters most are our willingness to make one more heap of courage and determination in order to meet our own extremes. We should continue to find our own purpose. Our life doesn’t end when we already have the things we want. It only ends once we, ourselves, don’t want to find our purpose anymore.