Download Genetic testing of villagers in a remote part of China has shown that nearly two thirds of their DNA is of Caucasian origin.
The results support the theory that they may be descended from a 'lost legion' of Roman soldiers.
Clarence Chua travel to these villagers on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in north-western China to find out more.
Visitors to Yongchang will be greeted by three large figures at the town center.
A traditional Chinese official, a Hui-Muslim woman and a statue that looks like a Roman soldier.
Around the base of the statues some primary school students are playing.
When I ask them whether they had Roman ancestors they laugh and point to one of the girls in the group. She has a few strains of light brown hair.
My quest to uncover the truth about the Roman legend has brought me to the nearby village of Zhelaizai about 30 minutes from Yonchang.
Some of the villagers here are said to have blue eyes, long noses and even fair hair.
A local man, Wang Xu Shou, is one of many villagers convinced that he is descended from a lost legion of Roman soliders.
“There is a legend here that my looks come from ancient Roman soldiers. This story has been passed down by my grandparents since I was a young boy. When I was growing up the villagers refused to call my name. They call me “wai guo ren”, a foreigner.”
Wang has hazel eyes, deep eye sockets and a large nose.
And today he is dressed up as a Roman legion for a Beijing television production about the Chinese Roman legend.
Huang Wang Yun, the head of the village committee, explains how the connection was made.
“Before the 1960s we all thought that these villagers were born with strange looks. Although we have heard of the legend of Roman soldiers in China we have never met a foreigner before. It was not until China opened up later that we realized many in our villagers look like these foreigners. In 2006 blood samples were collected for analysis and found that 46% had European DNA”.
Thirty something Liu Ying says that Caucasian features are prevalent on the male side of his family.
“When my grandfather was alive, his eyes were blue and his beard was yellow. My father was also the same. He had a high bridge nose and blue eyes. When I was younger my eyes were blue but as I grew older they turned hazel. When I was still in school, people used to call be a German, an Englishman or “blue eyes”.”
So how did the Roman soldiers end up in China?
Liu Ying explains his version of events.
“In the battle of Carrhae the Romans were defeated. About 5 to 6 thousand soldiers managed to escape and eventually made their way to China where they were made to guard the western outpost by the Chinese. The place was named ‘Liqian’ which is the old Chinese name for ‘Rome’.”
Officially the two powers only came into contact in 166 AD.
But in 1955 Oxford University Professor Homer Dubs claimed that Roman legionaries settled in the area in the first century BC after fleeing a disastrous battle.
They then supposedly fought as mercenaries for the Huns against the Chinese.
Chinese chroniclers refer to the capture of a "fish-scale formation" of troops, a possible reference to the "tortoise" formation used by Roman troops.
If you have watched the Hollywood blockbuster “Gladiator” the formation was used when the Gladiators shielded themselves like a box exposing only their pikes.
The Chinese were so impressed that they made the 145 soldiers guard against the Tibetans in an outpost named after them – Liqian, where present day Zhelaizai village is located.
Song Guorong is with the Liqian Culture Research Association.
“According to records Liqian does exist in ancient times. Liqian is the old name for Rome in Chinese. As to whether the villagers are descendents of Romans these is no certainty.”
Archeologists plan to conduct digs in the region to search for remains of forts or other structures built by the fabled army.
But some scholars remain skeptical of the Roman connection.
Zhelaizai is after all located near the well established Silk Road and the villagers could possibly be descendents of other foreign travelers to China.
And the more I travel to the west of China, the more apparent it becomes that interracial marriages had already begun thousands of years ago.
