This rider's soft felt hat associates him with the region of Sogdiana in present-day Uzbekistan, some 2,800 miles from Xian, China's capital city at the time. Central Asian men usually handled the camels along the trade routes that spanned Asia. The total distance of the overland route--some 7,500 miles--was broken up into shorter stretches as merchants and camels traveled back and forth between trading posts and cities along its length. Traveled into the 20th century, the way crossed dry and empty expanses characterized by extreme termperatures, wind, and dust storms.