Marco Polo's 700th anniversary exhibition in Beijing

(ANSA) - VENEZIA, 25 OTT - An opportunity for knowledge and exchanges in the footsteps of Marco Polo: this is how one can define the meeting organised today in Beijing by the Save Group and the Italian Embassy in China with a dozen Chinese airlines and airports, invited to a private tour of the exhibition 'Journey of Knowledge. Il Milione di Marco Polo e la sua eredità fra Oriente e Occidente' (Marco Polo's Million and its Legacy between East and West), of which the Venice airport management company is one of the main economic supporters. The exhibition, the main event in China dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo, is organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, the Italian Embassy in Beijing, the diplomatic network in China, and is coordinated by Treccani, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Approximately one month after the activation of the tri-weekly direct flight to Shanghai, which, with an average occupancy level of 85%, is meeting the forecasts of Save and the China Eastern airline, this new trip to China is an important opportunity for relations, considering the potential of the Chinese market on the one hand, and the attractiveness of the Italian North East on the other. After Shanghai, new potential destinations are the capital Beijing and other cities, such as Chengdu in the centre of China and Guangzhou on the coast, which each express a population of over 15 million inhabitants with respective catchment areas reaching a population of 45 million. These realities hold out the prospect of new direct connections with Marco Polo airport, the nation's third largest intercontinental airport. 'We continue to look forward to the prospect of new air routes connecting Venice and China,' said Enrico Marchi, president of the Save Group. The event took place in an extremely evocative context, telling of contacts and exchanges between East and West, and accompanied us in this meeting with the main Chinese airlines and airports, in view of further future collaborations also to stimulate valuable tourist flows to our region".