The Silk Road Page #4

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The Venetian trader

was equally impressed, it seems,

by the mighty Yangtze river.

"It is the greatest river

in the world.

More boats loaded with more dear

things and of greater value come and go

by this river than by all the rivers

and seas used by the Christians."

Marco could not have asked for more.

He had made it safely to China.

He had discovered a land of

unimaginable wealth.

His quest to establish a lucrative

trade connection with the east

was very much on course.

It is here,

on the threshold of his dream,

that Marco's account

turns fantastical.

He says that he sees a fish that's a

hundred feet long that has fur on it.

He describes how the animals bow

to visitors at the Khan's court.

Like the tigers came out

and they take a bow on cue.

So you know it's just things that

when you read it cannot have happened.

The bizarre sections in Marco Polo

of animal headed people

and strange looking fish,

this is something that is not unusual.

The conventions of travel writing

during that time fit in with

the kind of mythologizing and

fantasizing that Marco Polo includes.

Equally controversial is

the total absence of any reference

to unique Chinese rituals

that would have amazed a European

seeing them for the first time.

Marco Polo does not mention certain

characteristics of China

such as calligraphy, tea, bound feet

because Marco Polo lived

among the Mongols.

He dealt with Kublai Khan and the

other members of the Mongol nobility.

He didn't deal with the Chinese.

So just because he didn't mention

those things

doesn't mean that

he didn't reach China.

Marco Polo's defenders

point to details

which could not have been

invented in Europe.

"Throughout the province of Cathay

there are large black stones

dug from the mountains which burn

and make flames like logs."

Marco Polo was the first European

to ever write about coal

a treasure that transformed the world.

Marco Polo was definitely in China.

I am absolutely convinced of it because

of the tremendous detail in his book

his descriptions of the Mongols:

Mongol customs, Mongol dress,

Mongol attitudes towards women.

And in addition he describes

specific events so clearly.

The assassination of

a finance minister.

Now who would have known about that

if you hadn't been in China?

The reason I don't think Marco Polo

went to China is that

there are basic factual inaccuracies

in the book.

He says he's the governor of a town

and we have a list of governors

of that town, Yangzhou,

and he's not on the list.

And the second is he says he's

at a battle that took place in 1273

and we know the battle took place in

Perhaps the secret to the mystery of

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