Over four centuries ago, the Bailudong Academy welcomed a special “international exchange student” - Italian missionary Matteo Ricci. Clad in traditional Confucian robes, this Western intellectual fostered cross-cultural understanding through profound dialogues with Chinese scholars, planting the seeds of Sino-Western academic exchange. From his transnational friendship with then-director Zhang Huang to the academy's evolution into a global academic hub today, this millennium-old institution continues to embody the timeless truth: civilizations only thrive through mutual learning.