Venice and the Great Wall of China... Dreams in stone that time erodes, wonders of the world.

Poetic as it may be, the idea initially surprises. Until the memory arises of the one who first forged a connection between the City of Doges and the Celestial Empire: Marco Polo...

Ah, the fabulous journey of Marco the Enchanter! Departing from Venice in 1271, he spends some twenty years in the mythical Cathay of Kublai, this descendant of Genghis Khan who was the most enlightened of monarchs. Then, he returns to Venice the Serene and there he tells, he writes: 'Il Milione' or 'The Description of the World.' 

And the dazzled West discovers the Far East. A new era begins: Christopher Columbus is not far away, as we know, having read much of Marco Polo. ...From Venice the merchant (the first capitalist city?) to the empire that invented paper money, the journey is not so long, nor the wedding so baroque... 

"...It is not surprising then that the world unites for their preservation. Municipalities, newspapers, organizations of all kinds, the Paris Opera and the Beijing Opera, have joined forces to sponsor unprecedented performances that will be broadcast worldwide. What a celebration!" 

Oh, of course, one could endlessly mock these eminent capitalist figures who go to a communist country in search of delights or mock a China eager to sell its wonders to said figures. Of course... 

Still, the modern world was born from such encounters... And it will be good and sweet to remember it on a summer evening in the heart of the once Forbidden City.

...So that Venice may live, and that from the Moon, one always beholds the prodigious body, the insolent body of the Great Wall of China.