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Marco Polo

 

            Throughout history there has always been the question of Marco Polo's adventure to China. The travel to China is not documented in any historical references in China which would lead one to believe it never happened. Further evidence proves that he did not go to China since he does not speak of their well - known cultural ways, such as the Great Wall of China, feet binding and tea drinking. .
             There are so many different views to the question, "Did Marco Polo go to China?" Marco Polo was said to be a great traveler, he supposedly traveled to china in 1271 with his father, Nicolo and his uncle, Maffeo Polo. Although the authenticity of his travel is in question, the information that he did provide us with made a dramatic impact on society. People did not think that there was anything to question, they heard about something new and interesting and that was enough for them to want to go explore and see what is on the outside of there usual environment. .
             What makes people question about Marco Polo actually going to China is that when he talks about his stay in China there is no mention towards obvious cultural ways. For example tea drinking, this was an extremely common tradition in China. Everywhere that you went they served you tea even if you didn't want it. (1, http://www.cnn.com /NATURE/9911/02/asia.quest/index.html) So why didn't Marco Polo mention this in his accounts of China? Another obvious point of information that was missing was the process of feet binding. This was also very common in China. They would bind girls" feet so that they wouldn't grow past a certain size. It would be considered indecent for a women to have big feet like a man. .
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             Nuno, 2.
             Another piece of information, which leads one to believe Marco Polo did not visit China, was that he never mentioned anything on the use of chopsticks. Everyone knew to relate chopsticks to the Asian culture. So for him to ignore this piece of information was an obvious reason to believe that he did not reach China.


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