Post Roads

Timeline

1. -300–600Corridor from Guanzhong to the Persian Gulf · AsiaQin Shi Huang built imperial roads linking commanderies and counties, and the Han postal relay system took shape; meanwhile the Persian Achaemenid Royal Road ran from Susa to Asia Minor, and the Sasanian Empire continued road maintenance, forming parallel imperial post-road traditions at the two ends of Eurasia.
2. 1081–1090Post routes from Kaifeng to Qin and Long; Baghdad to Khurasan · ChinaWith Kaifeng at its center, the Northern Song divided post roads into land and water routes, with daily distances and relay-horse rules recorded in the Collected Statutes of the Song; meanwhile Abbasid roads still connected Mesopotamia with eastern Persia, with merchants and envoys sharing the trunk routes, echoing China's northwestern post roads in concept and function.
3. 1271–1400Dadu connected to post routes nationwide · ChinaThe Yuan dynasty incorporated routes of the Central Plains, the Northeast, and the Western Regions into a unified postal system; the Ming and Qing inherited and revised the postal relay statutes in the Collected Statutes of the Great Ming and the Collected Statutes of the Great Qing, and post roads continued as state infrastructure until the rise of modern postal services.