Gan Ying

Gan Ying was a Chinese official who was sent on a mission to Rome by the general Ban Chao. He did not reached Rome, but nevertheless he went the furthest west than any Chinese emissary before him.

In 97, General Bai Chao, who was occupied with pacifying the Western Regions and maintaining the safety of the Silk Road, dispatched Gan Ying on a mission to establish contact with the Roman Empire. Gan Ying and his entourage departed from the kingdom of Qiuci (present-day Kuche, Xinjiang), passing through Tiaozhi (Characene and Susiana, present-day Iraq) and crossing Anxi (Parthia, present-day Iran) to its western border, the shores of the Persian Gulf. People of Anxi halted his mission by greatly exaggerating about the difficulty of crossing the sea, inducing Gan Ying to halt his expedition and return to China. The Anxi knew that the direct access and negotiations between the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire would threaten their control of the trade in Chinese silk with the West. Although the expedition was not a success it greatly enriched Chinese knowledge of the countries of Central Asia.