Boasting a history of over 2,000 years, the Silk Road spans Europe and Asia while connecting the Orient with Occident civilizations. Its essence and impetus lie in harmony without uniformity, openness, inclusiveness, exchanges, cooperation, mutual benefit, and win-win outcomes. It’s a valuable legacy of human civilization. As early as the Han (206 BC—220 AD) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, the Silk Road on land began to serve as an important bridge for exchanges in economy, trade and culture between the Orient and the Occident. In the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road reached its heyday when the Orient and the Occident learned from each other and benefited from win-win outcomes delivered by the exchanges in economy, trade and culture. The well selected cultural relics for the exhibition encompass the valuable evidence of history since the opening of the Silk Road by Chinese ancestors, as well as the physical evidence of the Chinese influences and cultural elements presented in the occidental works. These include the compass, compass bowl, nautical charts and ship models used by China and Italy in navigation; bronze ware, porcelain, glassware, Chinese terracotta figurines with Western characteristics in the Tang Dynasty, as well as early Italian documents recording the contributions of Italian travelers and missionaries to cultural exchanges between the Orient and the Occident, such as The Travels of Marco Polo, Pratica Della Mercatura (Practice of Marketing), The World Map, among others. Moreover, the exhibition features many valuable and rare cultural relics collected by museums of both China and Italy. The exhibits from the collection of the NMC include the painting Rain in the River and Mountains (a picture of mountains and streams in mist and rain) by Huang Gongwang (one of the Four Great Master Painters in the Yuan Dynasty), Dwelling by Water and Bamboo by Ni Zan (one of the Four Great Master Painters in the Yuan Dynasty) and Nine Horses and Five Grooms by Ren Renfa (a great painter of imperial horses). Among the exhibits from the Palace Museum are Farming and Harvesting in the Song Dynasty, the scroll painting Zhang Guo’s Audience with Emperor Minghuang by Ren Renfa and Three Horses by Ren Xianzuo. Among other exhibits on display are the “Jingdezhen-kiln blue-and-white porcelain flask with engraved phoenix head” collected by the Capital Museum of China, Wooden Sculptures of Beauties from the Xinhui Museum, the classic fresco "Flora" unearthed at Pompeii, the famous work “St. Stephen” by Giotto di Bondone, as well as “Coronation of the Virgin” and “Procession of the Magus Balthazar” created in the 15th century. These precious cultural relics vividly demonstrate the historical mainstream of peaceful and common development of the Orient and the Occident.