The Silk Road and the Great Wall of China represent different approaches and goals of the Chinese foreign policy.
The Silk Road is expansionary foreign policy: its goal is to increase communications and trade with other countries, from the Mediterranean, to Iran, to Tibet.
The Great of Wall of China has the opposite goal: to keep foreign invaders from entering the Chinese hinterland.
March 17 represented a symbolic occasion for Irish people to reflect on their sense of self and look back with nostalgia at ancient Ireland. The figure of St Patrick driving snakes out of Ireland became a metaphor for the struggle against British rule.
