You also participated in this activity. Could you tell us about the artists' ideas and works?

The first group of the foreign part travel finished on January 28. Along the Silk Road, we never missed a single chance for drawing sketches on the spot and also accumulated plenty of resources for further creation.

Speaking about the content, some of the works touched on ancient stories, while some reflecting the current situation along the Silk Road. Others showed the fruits of cultural and economic interaction between China and foreign countries. We can say we gained a lot from this trip.

As for the genre of our works, oil paintings generally deal with the present, since it takes longer time to finish an oil painting. On the other hand, some traditional Chinese paintings reflect history since such paintings can be completed more quickly. On January 23, we had a seminar about the trip and creations, during which painters discussed their plans and exchanged views.

I myself wanted to paint six pieces and they are almost completed. Some further improvements will be made on them. Pan Shixun, a professor with China Central Academy of Fine Arts and famous oil painter, chose the former residence of Marco Polo as the theme of his works. Du Ziling, an expert in traditional Chinese painting, will mainly focus on the snow mountains and camels of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as well as merchants in the city of Venice. Traditional Chinese painter Xu Yongmin will depict humanistic and historical scenes in Istanbul and Italy using both traditional and modern methods. Oil painter Wu Yunhua will create a magnificent oil painting about the current situation of the Silk Road. Bazaars in Turkey and streets in Rome will be respectively reflected in the works of Yu Zhixue, founder of Ice and Snow Landscape painting, and Liu Yongjie, a professor of traditional Chinese painting at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. Photographer Han Baosheng expressed his intention to create a series of works about the architecture of churches to reflect cultural communication between the East and the West. Each painter will create at least three pieces, totaling more than 150 fine art pieces in the end.

A piece of work painted by Wang Shengli during his travel in Europe in January.

How do painters feel about visiting the ancient Silk Road in this new era?

First of all, through this trip we have all better realized the great significance of opening the Silk Road in ancient times, especially in terms of cultural communication between countries. Setting foot on the Silk Road, you can deeply feel that Western culture and Chinese culture are both really precious treasures of human history. Along the road, you can actually see their mutual influence upon each other. We found out that Greece and southern Italy were deeply influenced by the culture of the Middle East, not to mention Egypt. Meanwhile, China's Tang Dynasty was also influenced by Persia (what is now Iran). The Tang Dynasty was a very open period. For instance, Tang-era clothing, such as its equestrian wear, was deeply influenced by Western style. In the Dunhuang frescoes in Gansu Province and frescoes in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, we can also see the influence of Western culture, especially the art of Greece and Italy.

In addition, we all sensed the vast changes of countries along the Silk Road over the past two millennia and more. Taking Turkey, for example, we Chinese know little about the country except its glorious past as a powerful empire. Actually, it is one of the most rapidly developing economies in the world today. It is developing almost as fast as China. It is Europe's sixth largest economy and the 16th largest in the world. This activity received a lot of support and help from the Turkish Embassy in China, which shows Turkey's emphasis on cultural communication with China. The Turkish Embassy has requested that the artworks resulting from this project be exhibited in Turkey when they are finally finished. Our work should not only reflect civilization 2,000 years ago but also the current condition of countries along the Silk Road. That's the essential purpose and significance of this project.