The Venetian merchant Marco Polo was a significant figure in 13th century’s world history, largely because he travelled to China. During his seventeen-year-stay in China, he left his footprints all across the land. Book of the Marvels of the World (also known as The Travels of Marco Polo), which was based on his oral narratives and written down by his fellow inmate in prison Rustichello, became the authoritarian source about China in the late medieval period. Inspired by Marco’s description of the mysterious country in the East, Columbus set off to quest for Asia and accidentally reached the Americas, which started the Age of Discovery and the process of globalization.

Marco Polo was not only a great traveller in the Middle Ages, but also a pioneer of the cultural exchange between Italy and China. Thus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, along with its partner the University of Warwick (Warwick Venice Centre), will organize a workshop on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death on June 22- 23, 2024, in Shanghai. Items under discussion are the economy, society, and the political, cultural and religious life of medieval Eurasia. The language of the conference is English.