italian 70-year-old man walks along the silk road to witness the achievements of the belt and road initiative
2024-08-28
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74-year-old italian female traveler viana camarotta is about to complete her latest challenge - retracing the "ancient silk road".
on april 26, 2022, camarotta, carrying a backpack and two trekking poles, set out from venice, the hometown of marco polo, and started a journey with a total mileage of 22,000 kilometers. a few days ago, she returned to paestum, her hometown in southern italy, for a short rest. in an interview with xinhua news agency, she said that she will arrive in kyrgyzstan at the end of august this year to continue her hiking journey, enter xinjiang through the irkeshtam port, and finally arrive in beijing. china is the last stop of her silk road journey.
camarota's first impression of china came from a chinese student who stayed at her home 20 years ago. influenced by him, she began to read books about the silk road, including the travels of marco polo, and learned a lot about oriental culture. since then, the dream of "going to the east" has sprouted in her heart.
in camarota's eyes, she is walking on both the ancient silk road and the new silk road. in her opinion, "today'one belt, one road' has established close economic, cultural and other ties between the co-construction countries and china."
this is a photo of vianna camarota on her journey (photographed in 2022). xinhua news agency
during her two-year journey, the italian traveler has traveled through more than 10 countries from west to east. she has witnessed the construction of roads, railways, bridges and other infrastructure under the belt and road initiative. the ancient and modern silk road shines brightly during camarota's journey.
shortly after starting her hike in 2022, camarota witnessed the successful completion of the pelješac bridge built by a chinese company in croatia. she posted on social media: "this 2.4-kilometer-long cross-sea bridge not only connects croatia's land across the sea, but also connects korcula island, where marco polo lived as a child, with the mainland. it is a great project."
in october 2023, camarota arrived in tajikistan, where she reached the china-tajikistan highway under construction on the pamir plateau. this highway, with a total length of more than 1,000 kilometers, is expected to connect tajikistan with china's karakoram highway after it is opened to traffic in 2026.
camarota said: "the pamir plateau region has poor transportation and underdeveloped economy, but the roads built by china have brought hope to local residents. the belt and road initiative has promoted trade and cultural exchanges among the participating countries."
after entering china, camarota plans to visit important places along the ancient silk road, such as kashgar, turpan, dunhuang, zhangye, jiayuguan, xi'an, etc. she also wants to visit suzhou, the "venice of the east" described by marco polo... she lamented that china is so vast and hopes to experience chinese culture through hiking.
talking about the significance of this trip, camarota told reporters that china has an astonishing number of world cultural heritage sites, the world's most advanced technology, and is good at protecting cities and natural environments. so "i want to use my journey and the power of the media to show the real china and convey my voice, that is, we must continue to strengthen exchanges with china and continue the spirit of the silk road."
despite her age, camarota is still energetic. she said she not only wants to let people know about marco polo and the silk road, but also to appeal to all women her age not to give up their dreams even in old age.
(xinhua news agency, paestum, italy, august 27, reporter ren yaoting)
guangming daily (12th edition, august 28, 2024)
source: guangming daily
