Polo starts his description of Japan, much like other sections of his narrative, starting with an detailed account of the people. It also provides an up-to-date history of the book and the controversies surrounding it.The final section of The Travels of Marco Polo that I would like to analyze is his time in Japan. It explains clearly all the references in the book, and shows in detail with new maps the routes described from Venice to Beijing, from Beijing to Burma, and from Beijing to south-east China. This new Everyman edition shows this need not be so. The original manuscript of Marco Polo's book is lost, and in the many later versions names and other details have become so garbled that it has been said that his itineraries are impossible to follow. As this new edition shows, he sometimes exaggerates, but his reputation for making things up is quite unfair, as Colin Thubron makes clear in his introduction.
His book was often thought of as a book of marvels, but one of its striking features to a contemporary reader is its clarity, realism and tolerance. He even writes about Japan, the first European to do so. And he reminds us of the huge merchant ships dominating China's trade with foreign countries, ships that far outstripped their European counterparts. He conveys the daunting prospect of the deserts of central Asia and the distant charms of Yunnan. He reminds us that Iraq's present suffering is not unique by relating the story of the attack on Baghdad by Mongol forces in 1258. Marco Polo also portrays countries and cities all along the trade route from the Mediterranean to Mongolia. At a time when China is again assuming global importance, his account of China under the Mongol emperor Khubilai Khan - the dazzlingly splendid capital in Beijing, the great southern metropolis of Hangzhou - is a classic reminder of the antiquity of Chinese power and civilization.
His book was one of the best-loved works of the Middle Ages, and has remained popular ever since. He isone of the few early adventurers whose name nearly everyone knows. Marco Polo set off on his travels from Venice as a young man in 1271, and returned home in 1295 after spending 24 years away, 17 of them in China.
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