According to Faxian's "Records of Buddhist Kingdoms", the merchant ship he took originally wanted to go from Sumatra to Guangzhou, and "it would take just 50 days to reach Guangzhou under normal sailing conditions", that is, it would sail directly from the deep sea to Guangzhou.

Chang Jun, an envoy of the Sui Dynasty, also took this route to Chitu, reaching the Kingdom of Chitu from Guangzhou in about fifty days. However, the Maritime Silk Road had not yet achieved the grandeur of the Northwest Silk Road, where "hundreds of countries and thousands of cities all paid tribute, and merchants and traders from the Hu region rushed to the border every day."

During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, maritime trade was already showing signs of catching up with the Northwestern Silk Road. In Guangzhou, "barbarian merchants, their ships plying the seas," and "countless Brahman, Persian, and Kunlun ships were crisscrossing the river, laden with mountains of spices, medicines, and precious treasures."

Huang Chao (820-884) carried out a large-scale massacre after capturing Guangzhou. "A total of 120,000 Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians who were living in the city doing business were killed by him."

When Tian Shengong suppressed Liu Zhan's rebellion, "thousands of merchants from the Hu, Arab, Persian, and other ethnic groups died in Yangzhou." This was no different from the prosperous scene along the Northwest Silk Road.

At the same time, the Tang Dynasty's influence and control over the Western Regions and Central Asia rapidly declined. In the ninth year of the Tianbao reign, Gao Xianzhi suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Arabs at Talas. Following the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang army largely retreated from the Western Regions back into the interior of China, dramatically altering the political landscape of the Western Regions and Central Asia.

Chang'an went from "a place with endless tribute before Kaiyuan" to "a place with withered streets and few visitors" after Tianbao.

After the Tibetans occupied the Hexi Corridor, people preferred the open and convenient sea routes. During the reign of Emperor Daizong of Tang (762-779), over 4,000 foreign envoys were stranded in Chang'an, and the Tang government planned to "send them back to their home countries via the sea route."

Most monks who went to India to seek Dharma also chose the sea route. According to the "Biographies of Eminent Monks Who Seeked Dharma in the Tang Dynasty", among the sixty monks who went west to seek Dharma, thirty-three took the route through the South China Sea.

During the Five Dynasties period, traffic on the Northwestern Silk Road declined further compared to the Maritime Silk Road. Only the Uighurs and Khotan in the Western Regions maintained tributary relations with the Central Plains regime, and the frequency of these tributes was relatively limited.

According to the "Five Dynasties Periodicals", the Uighurs paid tribute to the Central Plains regime seven times, and Khotan paid tribute five times.

Moreover, during the Later Jin and Later Han dynasties, "whenever the Uighurs came to the capital, the people were forbidden to trade privately. All their treasures were to be sold to the government, and anyone engaging in private transactions would be punished." It was not until the Later Zhou Taizu that "the old law was abolished, and whenever the Uighurs came to trade privately, the officials would no longer prohibit or question them."

Meanwhile, the southern states of Wuyue, Fujian, and Southern Han attached great importance to overseas trade. The scale of Wuyue's trade can be seen simply from the amount of spices, medicines, and jewelry it paid as tribute to the Song Dynasty.

In the first year of the Qiande reign (963), the tribute amounted to 150,000 jin of incense and medicine, as well as rhinoceros horn, ivory, gold, silver, pearls, and tortoise shells. In the ninth year of the Kaibao reign (976), the tribute amounted to 70,000 jin of frankincense, as well as rhinoceros horn, ivory, incense and medicine. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, tribute amounted to more than 10,000 jin of incense and medicine, as well as other jewels.

The Fujian government also vigorously developed overseas trade. The Southern Han Dynasty also attached great importance to trade. In the year (971) when the Song Dynasty conquered the Southern Han Dynasty, it established the Maritime Customs Office, which shows that its overseas trade was not only of considerable scale, but also had institutionalized management.

Compared with the Five Dynasties, trade in the northwest of the Song Dynasty had greatly developed. Before the Western Xia occupied Lingzhou (now Wuzhong City, Ningxia), the Lingzhou Road, the main route connecting the Central Plains to the Western Regions, was unobstructed.

After the Western Xia occupied Lingzhou, the Lingzhou Road was severed. The Song Dynasty maintained communication with the Western Regions via the Qingtang Road, which remained open until the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Ganzhou regime "sent envoys to pay tribute, only to be plundered by the Deming Emperor," and "the Zongge and other tribes, grateful for the court's kindness, sent numerous troops to defend and aid the advance." The Tibetans actively protected this road.

When the Byzantine Empire entered the Song Dynasty, it "traveled eastwards from the Western Arabs to Khotan, the Uighurs, and Qingtang, ultimately reaching China." Khotan's entry into the Song Dynasty also involved "traveling through the Yellow-headed Uighurs, the Cao-headed Tatars, and the Dongchen states." The Qingtang Road was a significant trade route.

In the fifth year of the Xining reign (1072), Wang Shao said, "The goods and merchandise of the foreign countries that flowed to China from all directions amounted to hundreds of millions each year." "People from the Huihe, Khotan, and Lugan countries often brought foreign goods, using China as a source of profit, and came to pay tribute." "The goods and merchandise they brought were worth up to over 100,000 strings of cash, and the least were no less than 50,000 or 70,000 strings of cash." Western Xia also "frequently sent envoys to trade with China."

However, compared with maritime trade, the Northwest Silk Road trade in the Song Dynasty had already occupied an absolutely secondary position, and the focus of foreign trade had completely shifted from the northwest land route to the southeast sea route.

There are three significant signs of this: First, the scale of maritime trade exceeded that of land trade. For the first time in the Song Dynasty, the revenue from customs duties acquired financial significance, something that land trade had never achieved.

In the early Northern Song Dynasty, customs revenue ranged from 300,000 to 800,000 xian (a composite unit). From the late Northern Song Dynasty to the early Southern Song Dynasty, annual revenue averaged approximately 1.1 million xian (a composite unit), reaching 2 million xian (a composite unit) in the 29th year of the Shaoxing reign (1159). The "Song Huiyao Jigao·Zhiguan Sisi" (Officials 44) records that over 400 items were imported in the third and eleventh years of the Shaoxing reign (1133 and 1141), representing an unprecedented boom in land-based trade.

The second is to establish a special agency (Shibo Si) and system (Shibo Regulations) to manage maritime trade.

The Northern Song Dynasty established Maritime Customs Offices in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, and Mizhou. The Southern Song Dynasty also established Maritime Customs Offices in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Mingzhou. These Maritime Customs Regulations encouraged Chinese merchants to go to sea and foreign merchants to trade in China. They established administrative measures such as issuing official certificates, guarantees, dispatching ships, withdrawing goods, and buying goods. These effectively established a profit-sharing mechanism between the state and merchants in maritime trade.

This mechanism was not present on the Northwest Silk Road from the Han and Tang Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, and it continued to promote the prosperity of maritime trade in the Song Dynasty. Third, the scale of merchants in maritime trade surpassed that of land trade.

Merchants of the Song Dynasty were allowed to trade overseas, and with their superior goods and technology, they became the dominant force in maritime trade. During this period, Arab merchants also launched a wave of eastward commercial expansion, establishing a trading power unmatched by land-based trade.

Historical records record 42 "tributary states" outside the Northern Song Dynasty. Of these, 30, or approximately 73%, arrived by sea. During the Southern Song, the northern and northwestern states severed their tributary relationship with the Song Dynasty, leaving only the maritime states.

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