So far, he has written more than 10 books on China. His writings include China, 700 Years After Marco Polo (1980), Journey In China (1986), In The Great Unknown Country Beyond The Wall (1989), Paper Flowers -- Poems From China (1990).

In his capacity as one of the world's leading sinologists, Madaro has been invited several times to organize Chinese exhibitions in Italy to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries.

In 2003, the Chinese Academy of International Culture and the Fondazione Cassamarca of Treviso jointly appointed Madaro the director of the great exhibition series "The Silk Road and Two Thousand Years of the Chinese Civilization" between 2005 and 2011.

In May 2003, during the SARS epidemic, Madaro was in Beijing as an international journalist. His reports and articles helped rectify some misunderstandings and prejudices about China among the Italian public.

Madaro's fascination with China began in his childhood. When he was six years old, he read Marco Polo and since then could never stop being curious about China, even dreaming that he would walk to China from his home.

At 14, Madaro read Chinese writer Lu Xun's True Story of Ah Q, which radically changed his youth.

"It was through reading Lu Xun that I gained my first significant insight into the soul of China," he always says.

At his home in Treviso, a city in northern Italy, the bookshelves are filled with thousands of books on China written in different languages. The furniture in the living room is typically Chinese. On the floor are Chinese carpets. Chinese silverware, chinaware, tri-colored glazed pottery are displayed in prominent places in the room.

He showed Xinhua some pictures he had taken and post cards he had mailed back to Italy from China over the past 30 years.

He disclosed his dream of compiling his monumental collection of old photographs into an album by the end of the year to portray all the changes occurring in China over the last 30 years.

Madaro's family gives him strong support for his work. Besides his wife, Madaro's two daughters, both graduates of the Philosophy Department of the University of Venice, have become his close assistants. They often shuttle between the two countries with their father.

Showing a photo with her father in front of the Birds' Nest (China's National Stadium), one of his daughters said: "In China, I feel comfortable. It has become a second home for my family."

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2008)