Silk Road Trading Game: How to play

Your goal in this game is to make it across the entire Silk Road, arriving in Antioch and maximizing your profit. You start as a trader in Xi'an. Along the way, you must buy enough food to last until you get to the next city. The more accurately you calculate how much food you need, the more Emporios (money) you can save for trading! (You cannot save your leftover food for later.) Also, in each city you can buy local products and sell whatever you've acquired along the way. Some products are more valuable than others—but may carry higher risk as well!

Good luck, and see you in Antioch—hopefully!

There are a couple of buttons that you may find useful to speed up the game—but you won't get the full experience!

Play Fast Forward

Unlike the real Silk Road traders, if you find travelling between cities a bit too tedious, you can speed things up by using this button. When in "fast" mode, you'll travel at lightning speed to the next stop!

Play Fast Forward

Also unlike the real world, if you find buying food a hassle, you can turn off the need to eat! However, you will be charged 600 Emporios at each city for this privilege.