Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254.When he was 17 years ole,he traveled across Europe and Asia with his father,who wanted to do trade with the Chinese.Eventually they arrived in Beijing.At that time,China was ruled by the Yuan Dynasty Emperor,Kublai Khan.
Kublai Khan welcomed Marco and his father.He was very happy to meet two foreigners and wanted to learn all about Europe.Marco and his father were guests at the Emperor’s Palace.Although Marco was young,he was very clever and could already speak four languages.The Emperor was impressed by him and they became friends.He asked Marco to serve in his court and sent him to do many important tasks across the country.
Marco,in turn,was amazed by how beautiful and powerful China was.He was very impressed by Beijing and the Emperor’s Palace,especially the Summer Palace which he described as “The greatest palace that ever was…The walls were covered in gold and silver and the Hall was so large it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner.”
There were inventions and developments in China which were not available in Europe at that time.Marco was surprised to see Chinese people using paper money in the markets.In Europe,people paid for goods with gold or silver.He could not understand how people could pay for food and valuable things with paper!He was also confused by the black stones people used to burn for fuel.The black stones were coal,but Marco had never seen coal before!
In 1291,after 17 years of service to the Emperor,Marco returned to Italy.He was now a very wealthy man.Not long after his return,a local war broke out near his town.During the war,Marco was the captain of a warship but was caught by the enemy and put into prison.However,Marco was lucky enough to meet another prisoner who enjoyed listening to his stories about China.The prisoner was an author and he took dictation while Marco told all his stories to him.The prisoner then wrote the stories in a book called The Description of the World,which became one of the best-selling books in Europe.
Although people enjoyed reading his book,many of them though that Marco’s stories about China were too fantastic to be true.But Marco always stood by his tales.Just before he died,aged 70 ,Marco was asked the question,” Was it all true?”,to which he replied,” I have only told a half of what I saw!”