Marco Polo spirit of mutual learning still valuable

When in 1266 Kublai Khan invited Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, respectively father and uncle of the legendary Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo, to Dadu, present-day Beijing, it was driven largely by curiosity. As the first European guests of the ruler of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), they were questioned extensively about Europe.

A similar curiosity led the two on their return trip to China, when they brought the young Marco on his life-defining adventure to the mysterious East. No edition of The Travels of Marco Polo is deemed authoritative, and doubts linger around the truthfulness of his narratives. But his recorded experiences did inspire broad interest in the Far East back home. Christopher Columbus, for one, embarked on his explorations driven at least in part by Marco Polo's book, a copy of which, with handwritten annotations, was among his belongings.

From the Yuan Dynasty on, Marco Polo's name, along with those of Italian missionaries such as Giovanni da Montecorvino, Matteo Ricci and Giuseppe Castiglione, has inspired cultural exchanges and mutual understanding not only between China and Italy, but also between China and Europe. So much so that, when Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Beijing on Friday, during the latter's visit, both leaders cited the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's journey to China as a hallmark of historical links between the two civilizations.