Lyu is director of National Heritage Center of Tsinghua University
"For centuries, many natural and manmade products, from bronze and porcelain to wool and cobalt, have been shipped between the East and West. Most notably, the Silk Road stretched across land and sea, connecting Italys Rome and Venice and Spain's Cadiz in the West and Japan's Nara in the East. It serves as a conduit for the spread of ideas, technologies, religious concepts and arts, hence promoting civilizational integration."