Einglish
“…you arrive at the most noble city of Quinsay,a name which is as much as to say in our tongue ‘The City of Heaven’, as I told you before. And since we have got thither I will enter into particulars about its magnificence; and these are well worth the telling, for the city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world”
—— The Travels of Marco Polo
The authentic manuscript of The Travels of Marco Polo can be found nowhere, but we can still see from the numerous versions handed down a special splendid city, Quinsay, through Marco Polo’s eyes. Quinsay, which means “the place where the emperor dwells”, is the name of Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, Hangzhou was a city of extreme prosperity on the south of the Yangtze River. In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo vividly described the geography, communications, population, commerce and folk customs of Hangzhou in the Yuan Dynasty at the end of the 13th century, which filled the blank of the historical records of Hangzhou from the perspective of a foreigner. As one of the largest cities in The Travels of Marco Polo, how did Hangzhou impress Marco Polo? Let’s follow the explanation of Professor BaoZhicheng to see Hangzhou through Marco Polo’s eyes:
In the Yuan Dynasty, located at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Hangzhou served as a coastal port city as well as an important hub of communications. The waterways went to the length and width of the whole city, such as the major lines of Yanqiao Canal, Shihe Canal, Tieshahe Canal and Qinghu River, connecting to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, West Lake and Qiantang River. The waterways can be used for sightseeing and transportation of materials.
Situated along the Yangtze River, dotted with many lakes and embraced by green mountains, Hangzhou has long been a renowned tourist attraction since ancient times. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, many beautiful houses and temples were built along the bank of the West Lake, in which many boats with supporting catering, services and facilities were floating. The scenery of the West Lake, which was highly praised by Marco Polo, may not be inferior to what we see today.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Hangzhou was the capital of Jiangzhe Province and the economic center of regions on the south of the Yangtze River as well. Following the system of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty used paper money. The circulation of paper money contributed to the greater prosperity of commerce, and considerable advancement of the service and handicraft industries. According to Marco Polo, Hangzhou saw great varieties in its entertainments, where the citizens were rich in life, elegant in manners and open in ideas.
Under the rule of the ethnic minority in the Yuan Dynasty, the population of Hangzhou manifested great complexity, with an endless stream of businessmen and tourists of various ethnic groups and races. According to the records in Volume 23 of The History of the Yuan Dynasty, in 1309, Hangzhou Post Station received more than 1,200 guests in half a year. In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Pole also mentioned Islamic, Franciscan, and Nestorian chapels, a clear evidence of the diversity of the population and culture of Hangzhou in the Yuan Dynasty.
