Traveling the Silk Road has never been a popular journey for most tourists. It is long,

adventurous, energy-sapping, treacherous, and relatively expensive. It could be spiritually

uplifting, though, if one chooses to re-enact and trace the path, the hard way, made famous by

Marco Polo, who pioneered trading between the East and the West 700 odd years ago. The

author and his wife joined a group of Texas A&M University alumni (Aggies) for this adventure

in June, 2004. He found the journey sufficiently worthwhile to be chronicled into an 8-page-

5000-word article. The author expresses freely and uniquely as if to invite readers to chime in, a

la Aggie talk. His subtle humor makes direct translation into Chinese difficult and would often

be misleading. Nevertheless, the article is not without the inclusion of history, geography and

demographic data. The contestants are strongly advised to do research so as to translate the

historical sites and events in proper Chinese terminology.

The translation contest is open to current students or research fellows of University of

Houston, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Center,

Texas A&M University and Texas Southern University who are affiliated with UACA only.

January 17, 2010

Provide name or group name, address, telephone number, and associated institution in the

article into Chinese, insert the furnished (enhance/image-stretching/edit through Adobe

Photoshop or equivalent is strongly recommended) photos as appropriate. Email the translated

Understanding of expressions, subtle humor, and style; names of individuals, sites,

countries and Hollywood movie titles, shall be the authentic/official Chinese terminology upon

translation. Demonstration of proficiency in desktop publishing and photo editing skill so as to

enhance the quality of the translated document shall be considered. Evaluation scores are:

authenticity 45%, understanding/phraseology/expressions 45%, and text manipulation/photo

editing 10%. Judging shall be done by panel members whose decision is final. Winners, upon

verification of pseudo names, will be announced and awards distributed at a 2010 Chinese New

Year Eve function. The winning translation along with the original article will be published in

the local Chinese newspapers.