THIS month saw the start of a cross-cultural programme bringing Britain and China closer together.

With the mayor (市长) of London, Ken Livingstone, on a week-long tour of China from April 9 to April 14, there was plenty of time for greater ties to be forged (铸造).

With the Olympic torch set to pass from Beijing in 2008 to London in 2012, the two capitals are more strongly linked than ever. The mayors of both cities signed an agreement on April 10 to encourage further co-operation (合作) on everything from tourism and culture to education and business.

But things didn't stop in Beijing. Livingstone's trip also took him to Shanghai, where he signed an agreement with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng to promote ties between their cities.

But don't think this means that the cities will be just working together on boring business matters. Poetry is part of the package too!

The Shanghai metro (地铁) will display poems by four British poets in a groundbreaking cultural exchange between the world's two most popular languages and its oldest and newest subway networks.

As part of the deal, the London underground is displaying lines in English from some of China's great wordsmiths: Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi.

Meanwhile, in China, the Shanghai metro will display extracts (摘录) in Chinese from William Wordsworth's "Daffodils" (《水仙》), Kathleen Jamie's "The Blue Boat", Michael Bullock's "Butterfly", and William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" (《天真的预示》).

Blake was also a painter and engraver (雕刻师) who illustrated and printed his own books. Misunderstanding shadowed (造成阴影) his career as a writer and artist and it was left to later generations to recognize his importance.

Go to www.britishcouncil.org.cn to read the full poems in English.