Not quite. I'm not a historian, but I know that the travels to the East (Marco Polo, etc) were instrumental in opening up the West. Nice to see it reciprocated :)

All the more reason to get the Silk Roads (including the southern route over Iran, Syria and Turkey) up and running again. Get ideas and trade back flowing vigorously through the veins of the whole of Eurasia.

That is where our collective future lies. A massive galaxy (continent) of bright shining stars (regions). A pattern repeating over the scales from whole, to regions, to cities, to villages, to families until you reach the individual, from which future individuals will blossom and embody and inspire all the steps back up and together form the future galaxy. Our future Eurasia...

(ps You might enjoy Jared Diamond Guns, Germs, and Steel)