French poet Jacques Darras reads poems under the Saint－John Perse Pavilion on the Yangtaishan Mountain in northwestern Beijing. Poet Luo Ying (Huang Nubo) sits and listens. The restoration of the pavilion is part of the Sino－French Poets Festival. [Photo by Mei Jia / China Daily]

The 75-year-old has written poems saluting Chinese culture and Chinese poets. Three years ago, in Paris, he met Huang Nubo, a Chinese poet and also a successful businessman.

"Under the slight influence of the wine, they asked me to rebuild the Perse pavilion, the token of the two countries' friendship, as it was in the old photo taken by Perse. And I said: 'OK, I'll try'," Huang says.

He met with local residents and experts. The original pavilion was found and reconstruction work began.

The reconstruction is also a gift for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations, Huang adds.

Xu Shuang, a professor from Paris Diderot University, believes the exchange will boost translation of mainstream contemporary poets from both countries.

"Chinese poets benefit a lot from French poetry. But many good poets are also good translators of foreign poems," says Wang Jiaxin, a poet-on-campus at Renmin University of China.

"Now maybe the time for Chinese poets to return something to world poetry," Wang says.