It would not be surprising to discover that the trade routes between China and the West were opened many centuries, even millennia, earlier than 200 B. C. , contrary to what is currently believed. After all, what made the Great Silk Road so attractive as a trade route linking China and the West -- level terrain, easily traversable mountain passes, and desert oases -- would also have made it an attractive route for the original emigrants to China from Africa and the Middle East, and this early migration began at least one million years ago.
It is offered as evidence in support of the claim that trade routes between China and the West could easily have been established much earlier than is currently believed is the way that a migration from Africa and the Middle East to China occurring at least one million years ago figures in the above reasoning.