1 00:00:54,619 --> 00:00:58,977 Michael Yamashita: 700 years ago, a young Venetian embarked 2 00:00:59,030 --> 00:01:05,858 on a 24 year odyssey, taking him to the furthest reaches of the globe. 3 00:01:09,910 --> 00:01:13,252 His book, "Description of the World," altered the course 4 00:01:13,733 --> 00:01:18,185 of history and made him a legend. Some believe it also 5 00:01:18,237 --> 00:01:19,207 made him a liar. 6 00:01:29,208 --> 00:01:33,551 I'm Mike Yamashita, a National Geographic photographer. 7 00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:37,831 For centuries, Marco Polo has been a figure of inspiration and 8 00:01:37,883 --> 00:01:42,304 suspicion. Did the world's greatest overland explorer 9 00:01:42,356 --> 00:01:46,934 really see what he described in his fantastical book? Did he 10 00:01:46,986 --> 00:01:48,425 ever make it to China? 11 00:01:58,008 --> 00:02:01,043 Marco Polo's book: Great princes, emperors and kings, 12 00:02:01,168 --> 00:02:06,371 dukes and marquesses, counts, knights and burgesses. And 13 00:02:06,423 --> 00:02:10,375 people of all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various 14 00:02:10,427 --> 00:02:15,057 races of mankind, take this book and cause it to be read to you, 15 00:02:15,401 --> 00:02:20,385 for let me tell you that never have there been any man who in 16 00:02:20,437 --> 00:02:24,922 his own person have had so much knowledge and experience of the 17 00:02:24,974 --> 00:02:29,384 diverse parts of the world and its wonders as have had this 18 00:02:29,509 --> 00:02:30,667 Messr. Marco. 19 00:02:32,606 --> 00:02:34,984 Michael Yamashita: Those are the opening lines to Marco's 20 00:02:35,140 --> 00:02:40,906 modestly titled book, "Description of the World." Now 21 00:02:40,958 --> 00:02:46,433 when I first read it, I got what's called Marco Polo fever 22 00:02:47,497 --> 00:02:53,566 and the symptoms of this disease or that I became obsessed, 23 00:02:53,597 --> 00:03:01,021 totally obsessed with everything Marco wrote or talked about, and 24 00:03:01,073 --> 00:03:03,545 that's why I'm here and in Venice. 25 00:03:11,302 --> 00:03:19,447 Okay, this is Corte del Milion, Marco Polo's believed to 26 00:03:19,499 --> 00:03:27,424 be his, his house. Why millon? Well, he was called milion by 27 00:03:27,476 --> 00:03:32,303 his contemporaries and nobody knows really why, whether it was 28 00:03:32,356 --> 00:03:36,245 about the fact that he made a million dollars or told a 29 00:03:36,297 --> 00:03:38,236 million lies who knows? 30 00:03:44,087 --> 00:03:47,163 You know, Giuseppe, I've heard a lot of different stories about 31 00:03:47,215 --> 00:03:52,012 Corte del Milion, but tell me what you know about this 32 00:03:52,064 --> 00:03:57,038 building? Is this Marco Polo's house? Yeah, not only this one, 33 00:03:57,945 --> 00:04:02,929 all was the house of Marco Polo because the house was very, very 34 00:04:02,981 --> 00:04:08,279 large. You know anything about Marco Polo? Marco Polo? Yeah. He 35 00:04:08,331 --> 00:04:11,146 lives there. What about this house? No, no. 36 00:04:15,588 --> 00:04:20,969 Does he live here? No, Veneziano dock. La isla de la Giudecca. 37 00:04:21,500 --> 00:04:26,923 Oh, he lives on Giudecca. Nobody seems to know the answer. I 38 00:04:26,975 --> 00:04:35,317 think it's this one. Well, there is one clue that possibly says 39 00:04:35,922 --> 00:04:39,217 something about Marco Polo living here. And that is these 40 00:04:39,269 --> 00:04:44,410 two birds up there, which are, I'm told the Polo crest, the 41 00:04:44,462 --> 00:04:46,808 Marco Polo family crest. 42 00:04:51,844 --> 00:04:55,734 What we do know is that Marco was only 17 when his father and 43 00:04:55,786 --> 00:04:59,269 uncle took him on one of the most influential journeys ever 44 00:04:59,322 --> 00:05:04,181 made. They were merchants and Venice in the 13th century was 45 00:05:04,233 --> 00:05:08,278 the bustling commercial center of the Mediterranean. Yet very 46 00:05:08,331 --> 00:05:13,461 few Europeans dared venture beyond their borders. Back then, 47 00:05:13,648 --> 00:05:18,122 many people still thought the world was flat. No European, 48 00:05:18,278 --> 00:05:21,448 barring a handful of missionaries would have gone as 49 00:05:21,500 --> 00:05:22,565 far as he did. 50 00:05:37,454 --> 00:05:40,530 Here we are at the Piazza San Marco with its two columns on 51 00:05:40,583 --> 00:05:44,785 the Quay. This would have been the exact same view Marco saw 52 00:05:44,837 --> 00:05:49,885 when he left Venice for China at the age of 17. You see the size 53 00:05:49,937 --> 00:05:50,594 of that thing? 54 00:05:52,001 --> 00:05:52,908 Oh, man! 55 00:05:57,851 --> 00:06:02,241 I wanted to find a new way to shoot this historical place. And 56 00:06:02,293 --> 00:06:06,703 I discovered that one of the world's largest cruise ships, 57 00:06:06,797 --> 00:06:10,207 the Grand Princess, was about to enter Venice. 58 00:06:17,528 --> 00:06:18,685 Unbelievable! 59 00:06:19,905 --> 00:06:25,108 As a Japanese American, I grew up interested in the Far East 60 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:29,081 and I studied Asian history in college. And now I'm going to 61 00:06:29,133 --> 00:06:32,741 get a chance to see a lot of that history come alive. I've 62 00:06:32,793 --> 00:06:38,611 always been interested in Marco Polo. But what really got me and 63 00:06:38,643 --> 00:06:43,033 deep in my intrigue was reading an article questioning whether 64 00:06:43,086 --> 00:06:48,195 he actually made it to China or not. And I thought, wouldn't 65 00:06:48,247 --> 00:06:54,441 this be the opportunity to prove once and for all that he made it 66 00:06:54,879 --> 00:06:59,206 or didn't make the trip? That was the, that that is the 67 00:06:59,258 --> 00:06:59,884 question. 68 00:07:01,448 --> 00:07:05,056 I then read a book by Dr. Frances Wood, curator of the 69 00:07:05,109 --> 00:07:09,029 Chinese collection at the British Library, who argues that 70 00:07:09,081 --> 00:07:11,678 Marco fabricated the stories in his book. 71 00:07:14,618 --> 00:07:17,194 Dr. Frances Wood: For centuries, people have doubted whether he 72 00:07:17,246 --> 00:07:21,166 actually travelled all the way across Asia to China. Whether he 73 00:07:21,218 --> 00:07:24,388 actually came back and wrote a book about it, some people even 74 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:26,599 doubt whether he even existed at all. 75 00:07:27,224 --> 00:07:30,300 Michael Yamashita: I'm going to retrace his steps using his book 76 00:07:30,353 --> 00:07:34,931 like a guide, and make up my own mind. So whether you become a 77 00:07:34,983 --> 00:07:39,112 believer or not, what you're about to see is one of the most 78 00:07:39,144 --> 00:07:42,147 amazing overland journeys ever made. 79 00:07:50,467 --> 00:07:56,349 Marco Polo left Venice in 1271. Traveling through Iraq, Iran, 80 00:07:56,881 --> 00:08:00,270 and Afghanistan before he finally arrived here about three 81 00:08:00,322 --> 00:08:04,733 years later, the Pamir mountains between China and Afghanistan. 82 00:08:05,421 --> 00:08:08,247 I'm sure that this would have been one of the more arduous 83 00:08:08,299 --> 00:08:11,156 legs and Marco's journey. He probably traveled here in 84 00:08:11,208 --> 00:08:14,315 winter, because in his book, he had written that in the 85 00:08:14,367 --> 00:08:18,882 mountains, flying birds, there are none. In that case, Marco 86 00:08:18,934 --> 00:08:22,043 would have had to deal with blizzards and avalanches. And as 87 00:08:22,095 --> 00:08:25,859 if that weren't bad enough, he claimed that up here, there was 88 00:08:25,911 --> 00:08:28,070 neither habitation nor shelter. 89 00:08:28,539 --> 00:08:31,458 Marco Polo's book: Tis said to be the highest place in the 90 00:08:31,510 --> 00:08:36,463 world. And when you have got to this height, you find a great 91 00:08:36,515 --> 00:08:40,436 lake between two mountains, and out of it, a fine river, running 92 00:08:40,488 --> 00:08:44,117 through a plain, clothed with the finest pasture in the world. 93 00:08:46,870 --> 00:08:51,604 Michael Yamashita: Cool breeze, soft sunlight, and unbelievable 94 00:08:51,657 --> 00:08:59,268 scenery. It just doesn't get any better than this. As Marco made 95 00:08:59,321 --> 00:09:02,303 his way through China, he encountered on more than a few 96 00:09:02,355 --> 00:09:06,619 occasions, a rather unusual custom. And I imagined it would 97 00:09:06,672 --> 00:09:11,239 have made his eyes pop, especially since he was still 98 00:09:11,645 --> 00:09:15,942 only a teenager. Now I don't know if this is the village or 99 00:09:15,994 --> 00:09:21,229 not, but one thing I've been noticing is how good looking 100 00:09:21,281 --> 00:09:22,845 these women really are. 101 00:09:28,632 --> 00:09:31,833 Now these are Kyrgheze people, right? Yes, there is so 102 00:09:31,885 --> 00:09:35,180 beautiful here and there's only this this these two families. 103 00:09:35,232 --> 00:09:40,124 That's true. Yeah. And I imagine that this work they're doing 104 00:09:40,176 --> 00:09:43,752 here is making these same carpets that they're sitting on 105 00:09:43,805 --> 00:09:51,573 over here. It's their job. Okay. At least half a dozen places 106 00:09:51,625 --> 00:09:57,912 throughout the book, he talks about meeting some tribe, where 107 00:09:58,632 --> 00:10:03,084 when the visitor arrives, the husband allows the visitor to do 108 00:10:03,136 --> 00:10:11,479 what he may with the wife as well as the daughter. How old is 109 00:10:12,053 --> 00:10:12,678 she? 110 00:10:15,431 --> 00:10:22,292 She's 16. What's her name? Tell her she looks, she's very 111 00:10:22,344 --> 00:10:24,784 pretty. (foreign language translator) 112 00:10:28,976 --> 00:10:31,146 Marco Polo's book: If a foreigner comes to the house of 113 00:10:31,198 --> 00:10:35,087 one of these people to lodge, the host is delighted and 114 00:10:35,139 --> 00:10:38,799 desires his wife to put herself entirely at the guests' 115 00:10:38,830 --> 00:10:43,721 disposal. Obviously, the country is a fine one to visit for a lad 116 00:10:43,773 --> 00:10:45,524 from 16 to 24. 117 00:10:46,776 --> 00:10:49,320 Michael Yamashita: Now Chinese scholars have actually confirmed 118 00:10:49,372 --> 00:10:52,386 that the practice of sharing wives and daughters with foreign 119 00:10:52,438 --> 00:10:56,516 visitors was indeed an ancient tradition in remote areas, the 120 00:10:56,568 --> 00:10:59,675 theory being that it helped widen the gene pool, avoiding 121 00:10:59,727 --> 00:11:02,991 the threat of marriages between blood relations. Well, these 122 00:11:03,043 --> 00:11:06,922 women were really nice, but they weren't nearly as hospitable, 123 00:11:06,984 --> 00:11:10,498 shall I say, as the ones I'm looking for? So I guess we'll 124 00:11:10,551 --> 00:11:14,846 move on and try to find another curiosity Marco says he found in 125 00:11:14,899 --> 00:11:15,712 these parts. 126 00:11:23,314 --> 00:11:25,973 So Abdul, what I'm really looking for here is a 127 00:11:26,004 --> 00:11:29,988 traditional family, and I need you to ask them if they've ever 128 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:34,774 seen the fabled Ovis polii. You know the huge Marco Polo sheep 129 00:11:34,826 --> 00:11:36,077 with curly horns. 130 00:11:40,018 --> 00:11:42,875 Marco Polo's book: there are great quantities of wild sheep 131 00:11:42,928 --> 00:11:48,090 of huge size. Their horns are as much as six palms in length 132 00:11:54,565 --> 00:12:00,988 Michael Yamashita: Can you ask about one thing, Marco Polo was 133 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:06,421 here, he talked about the big sheep. Big horn sheep that that 134 00:12:07,109 --> 00:12:13,846 were in the Pamir mountains. Has he ever seen one? 135 00:12:13,898 --> 00:12:22,240 (foreign language translator) Yes, he saw. How big is that sheep? 136 00:12:34,544 --> 00:12:40,405 Like looks just like a donkey. Okay, well, I never saw one live 137 00:12:40,457 --> 00:12:43,814 but I did find this set of horns on the other side of the Pamirs 138 00:12:43,867 --> 00:12:47,568 in Afghanistan. Just like a donkey. Marco certainly didn't 139 00:12:47,620 --> 00:12:49,841 exaggerate on this one. Thank you very much. 140 00:12:57,912 --> 00:12:59,570 Thank you, really enjoyed it 141 00:13:11,614 --> 00:13:15,628 Well, it's still another 250 miles to the great medieval town 142 00:13:15,681 --> 00:13:21,322 of Kashgar. It takes about nine hours by bus. But in Marco's 143 00:13:21,374 --> 00:13:25,232 day, he said crossing these mountains and gorges took about 144 00:13:25,284 --> 00:13:26,598 two and a half months. 145 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:36,838 Dr. Frances Wood: Now Marco Polo is supposed to have traveled 146 00:13:36,890 --> 00:13:39,810 from Venice all the way to Peking and then throughout the 147 00:13:39,862 --> 00:13:45,284 rest of China. We assume and I think most readers assume that 148 00:13:45,336 --> 00:13:48,537 it's it's a travel book where you can follow his route from 149 00:13:48,590 --> 00:13:51,916 place to place. But if you read it closely, you can't possibly 150 00:13:51,968 --> 00:13:55,513 do that. He suddenly shoots up to the north to Siberia, then 151 00:13:55,565 --> 00:13:59,393 cuts back down again. He reprises, goes back on his 152 00:13:59,445 --> 00:14:03,460 footsteps. So whatever it is, it's not an itinerary that you 153 00:14:03,512 --> 00:14:04,732 can follow directly. 154 00:14:07,672 --> 00:14:10,863 Michael Yamashita: Some of the distances that he described, 155 00:14:10,894 --> 00:14:14,033 sometimes he's right on, incredibly accurate and other 156 00:14:14,085 --> 00:14:20,821 times he's way off. But the miracle for me is to think what 157 00:14:20,873 --> 00:14:25,128 he wrote about was 20 years after he actually made the trip. 158 00:14:25,848 --> 00:14:27,954 Marco Polo's book: There are a good number of towns and 159 00:14:28,006 --> 00:14:36,348 villages, but the greatest and finest is Kashgar itself. 160 00:14:54,784 --> 00:14:58,923 Michael Yamashita: Well, Kashgar is arguably the biggest market in 161 00:14:58,975 --> 00:15:04,450 Asia. And it was a big market obviously in Marco Polo's day. 162 00:15:04,481 --> 00:15:09,277 As he puts it, there's a wealth of goods here and merchants 163 00:15:09,330 --> 00:15:16,379 travel, from Kashgar all over the world. The feel of this 164 00:15:16,431 --> 00:15:22,218 place is definitely for me, 13th century. 165 00:15:47,088 --> 00:15:52,041 What hasn't changed are the people and the faces and the 166 00:15:52,093 --> 00:15:56,827 bargaining and all this human interaction and that's what 167 00:15:56,879 --> 00:16:01,759 turns me on. And those are the pictures that I'm going for. 168 00:16:10,049 --> 00:16:16,254 This, the donkey section, it seems to be, contained the most 169 00:16:16,306 --> 00:16:21,040 characters. I think it's because donkeys are like a very basic 170 00:16:21,092 --> 00:16:26,514 form of transportation. And therefore you get very basic 171 00:16:26,566 --> 00:16:32,865 people here. Great faces, seemingly much more than any 172 00:16:32,917 --> 00:16:36,056 other part of the market. And the great thing about shooting 173 00:16:36,108 --> 00:16:39,809 here is nobody seems to pay any attention to you while you're 174 00:16:39,862 --> 00:16:45,690 shooting because they're all so intent on on the the work at 175 00:16:45,742 --> 00:16:52,510 hand which is buying and selling their donkeys. I'm able to walk 176 00:16:52,562 --> 00:17:00,112 around here and shoot without anybody really caring that this 177 00:17:00,164 --> 00:17:01,572 cameras in their face. 178 00:17:15,204 --> 00:17:19,546 I did a picture like this in Afghanistan, same thing throwing 179 00:17:19,746 --> 00:17:23,855 the weed up. And I always choose an angle where I'm right in the 180 00:17:23,908 --> 00:17:27,766 middle of the action. So I almost want to be right in the 181 00:17:27,818 --> 00:17:34,387 scene so you can feel the wind and feel that dust in your face. 182 00:17:35,576 --> 00:17:42,426 It hides and reveals at the same time Marco talks about wheat. 183 00:17:43,083 --> 00:17:47,243 Perfect illustration. Plus, as you know my job is to make 184 00:17:47,275 --> 00:17:53,918 whatever picture of an ordinary situation look look a lot more 185 00:17:53,970 --> 00:17:57,505 than ordinary. I love that. I just love that dust. 186 00:18:07,327 --> 00:18:12,906 What I love about old Kashgar is this feeling that things haven't 187 00:18:12,958 --> 00:18:18,568 changed much here in the last 1000 years or so. I like sitting 188 00:18:18,621 --> 00:18:23,354 on a corner and watching the world go by the women with their 189 00:18:23,407 --> 00:18:30,706 veils over their head. These donkey carts coming by. I feel 190 00:18:30,758 --> 00:18:34,084 privileged being a photographer and being able to see scenes 191 00:18:34,136 --> 00:18:38,651 like this and record them because I feel like I'm seeing 192 00:18:38,703 --> 00:18:45,252 history and putting it on film seeing something that won't be 193 00:18:45,304 --> 00:18:47,119 here in another three or four years. 194 00:18:55,158 --> 00:18:58,735 As we traveled east a few hours across this desert, we're gonna 195 00:18:58,787 --> 00:19:03,197 come across Yangasar, a town famous for its knives. 196 00:19:20,747 --> 00:19:26,847 Well, Marco talks about steelmaking on the Silk Road, 197 00:19:27,316 --> 00:19:33,302 usually in reference to making weapons of war. But anyway, we 198 00:19:33,355 --> 00:19:35,930 thought we should come here because this is the first and 199 00:19:35,982 --> 00:19:41,707 only steelmaking we found. Of course it's also the best knives 200 00:19:42,833 --> 00:19:47,556 supposedly on the Silk Road. And surely, Marco pass this way and 201 00:19:48,088 --> 00:19:52,009 everybody, as you can see, all these Uighurs carry one. And I'm 202 00:19:52,061 --> 00:19:53,468 sure he was carrying one too 203 00:20:05,043 --> 00:20:09,684 I understand the Yangisar knife is the best knife on the Silk 204 00:20:09,736 --> 00:20:14,616 Road. Is that true? Yeah. How long have they been making them? 205 00:20:16,743 --> 00:20:18,713 For a long time. Like how long? 206 00:20:20,622 --> 00:20:26,357 The history? For about 1000 years. How long does it take to 207 00:20:26,410 --> 00:20:32,072 make one of these knives? One knife. It takes three days to 208 00:20:32,103 --> 00:20:33,448 put up one knife. 209 00:20:35,825 --> 00:20:38,714 How long have these guys been working here? 210 00:20:38,766 --> 00:20:43,051 How long does it take for them to be a master knife maker? 211 00:20:43,114 --> 00:20:48,537 For my master, maybe over 30 years? Yeah, how long has this 212 00:20:48,589 --> 00:20:56,566 guy been working? Maybe, about 40 years or 45 years. This guy's 213 00:20:56,941 --> 00:21:02,207 been here for forty five years? He's one of the oldest knife 214 00:21:02,259 --> 00:21:12,601 masters in this factory. Thanks a lot for the tour. 215 00:21:12,957 --> 00:21:15,377 Let's get out of this noise. Show me some of those knives I'd 216 00:21:15,429 --> 00:21:22,290 like to buy. Hey check out my Yangisar blade with the yak horn 217 00:21:22,343 --> 00:21:31,684 handle. So from Yangisar, Marco continues along the famous Silk 218 00:21:32,134 --> 00:21:35,303 Road. And one of the most important commodities around 219 00:21:35,356 --> 00:21:39,965 here of course is silk, which gave the road its name. Now most 220 00:21:40,017 --> 00:21:44,063 silk exported from China today is made in factories but of 221 00:21:44,115 --> 00:21:47,150 course we wanted to find silk being made the traditional way, 222 00:21:47,275 --> 00:21:51,696 the way it would have been produced during Marco's time. We 223 00:21:51,748 --> 00:21:54,813 found what we were looking for in the villages around Hotan. 224 00:22:11,738 --> 00:22:12,926 Guli, what's going on here? 225 00:22:13,677 --> 00:22:17,504 Translator: This is called a silk boiling. So they boil the 226 00:22:17,556 --> 00:22:22,634 cocoon in this pot, about 15 minutes and then it becomes very 227 00:22:22,686 --> 00:22:28,348 soft. So the lady find the head of the thread, the silk reeling. 228 00:22:30,350 --> 00:22:35,325 From one cocoon, they can get about 800 meters. 229 00:22:36,388 --> 00:22:40,340 Michael Yamashita: 800 meters? Of raw silk. Wow! What happens 230 00:22:40,392 --> 00:22:42,530 to the worms? Are people still eating those worms? 231 00:22:42,582 --> 00:22:47,994 Translator: Yes, people still eat the worms, also make the soy 232 00:22:48,306 --> 00:22:48,932 sauce. 233 00:22:51,153 --> 00:22:55,605 Michael Yamashita: Do you like to taste? No. I'm not fond of 234 00:22:55,658 --> 00:22:56,471 it myself. 235 00:23:02,603 --> 00:23:07,493 I've never seen that before my life. Are you are you watching 236 00:23:07,545 --> 00:23:11,487 this? Guli? Can you explain to me what's going on here? 237 00:23:13,051 --> 00:23:13,677 (Translator) 238 00:23:14,947 --> 00:23:16,522 (Translator) 239 00:23:16,523 --> 00:23:18,431 Michael Yamashita: Can you explain to me what she's doing 240 00:23:18,463 --> 00:23:19,005 with this? 241 00:23:19,057 --> 00:23:25,783 Translator: This is corn starch. Make the silk stiff. 242 00:23:26,221 --> 00:23:27,681 Michael Yamashita: It makes it stiff 243 00:23:29,224 --> 00:23:31,852 Wow! I've never seen that. 244 00:23:39,891 --> 00:23:40,673 That was great. 245 00:23:54,344 --> 00:23:58,546 I guess what I find incredible is first of all, the fruit here 246 00:23:58,599 --> 00:24:01,800 is so good. Marco Polo talks about it, he raves about the 247 00:24:01,852 --> 00:24:07,868 fruit. And we just have traveled through nothing but desert. And 248 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:12,592 here we are in an oasis town. He just happened to put some water 249 00:24:12,644 --> 00:24:17,191 on the ground and turns into clay so that these guys can 250 00:24:17,243 --> 00:24:21,758 build this wall. And it's the same soil that grows this 251 00:24:21,810 --> 00:24:25,637 amazing fruit. It's almost like if you look at that it looks 252 00:24:25,689 --> 00:24:31,007 like just plain sand but put some water on it and it becomes 253 00:24:31,163 --> 00:24:34,385 just the most fertile soil that you can imagine. 254 00:24:41,081 --> 00:24:45,908 I'm now going in search of what Marco Polo called the cloth that 255 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:50,663 doesn't burn. And it comes from these remarkable rocks which can 256 00:24:50,715 --> 00:24:55,950 produce fiber as soft as cotton. Not only that, this material is 257 00:24:56,002 --> 00:24:56,909 fireproof. 258 00:24:58,473 --> 00:25:06,816 Here it is, just like the book says. it's sort of a fibrous, 259 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:14,990 feels feels like cotton. Chinese call it cotton rock. And this is 260 00:25:15,335 --> 00:25:23,676 where it comes from. These veins right here. This white stuff is 261 00:25:24,656 --> 00:25:28,108 stuck in these white and these veins here, sort of a greenish 262 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:34,834 color in this rock. And that's where asbestos comes from. But 263 00:25:34,886 --> 00:25:39,120 in Marco's time, many believed that asbestos actually came from 264 00:25:39,172 --> 00:25:42,654 the shedding skin of a salamander, a lizard like 265 00:25:42,707 --> 00:25:46,471 creature that was said to live in the fire. It was Marco who 266 00:25:46,523 --> 00:25:50,746 first revealed to the west the secret of its origins. 267 00:25:51,403 --> 00:25:54,135 Marco Polo's book: Beauty is not true that those cloths are of 268 00:25:54,187 --> 00:25:57,889 the hair of an animal which lives in fire. It is a thing of 269 00:25:57,942 --> 00:25:58,599 the earth. 270 00:25:59,036 --> 00:26:01,299 Michael Yamashita: Today asbestos is big business here in 271 00:26:01,351 --> 00:26:05,793 China. It's used to make all sorts of insulating material. 272 00:26:10,548 --> 00:26:14,469 China has some of the biggest asbestos mines in the world 273 00:26:14,521 --> 00:26:19,474 today. And they're still obviously, finding a lot of uses 274 00:26:19,526 --> 00:26:23,134 for this stuff. I guess everybody's wearing a mask as 275 00:26:23,187 --> 00:26:27,889 they do realize there's a danger here. But just as Marco 276 00:26:27,941 --> 00:26:34,771 describes it, so it is here he passed through here. It has to 277 00:26:34,823 --> 00:26:39,338 be firsthand observation, he can't have described it any more 278 00:26:39,390 --> 00:26:43,373 better, unless he had seen it, just the way I'm looking at it 279 00:26:43,426 --> 00:26:44,270 right now. 280 00:26:49,871 --> 00:26:53,447 With each triumphant find, I am more and more convinced that 281 00:26:53,499 --> 00:26:57,357 Marco had to be writing from firsthand experience. Not only 282 00:26:57,409 --> 00:27:01,632 are the sights exactly as he described, but we are finding 283 00:27:01,789 --> 00:27:09,995 each precisely where he tells us to look. No matter if you're a 284 00:27:10,047 --> 00:27:14,093 believer in Marco Polo or not, the mystery of whether he made 285 00:27:14,145 --> 00:27:22,258 it to China has brought us here. He's crossed the Pamirs, the so 286 00:27:22,310 --> 00:27:25,636 called roof of the world, suffering from incredible cold 287 00:27:25,689 --> 00:27:30,704 and high altitude. He's descended into Kashgar, where he 288 00:27:30,756 --> 00:27:34,041 visits the great market and reports about all the merchants 289 00:27:34,572 --> 00:27:39,901 who from here go all over the world. He's seen the silk being 290 00:27:39,953 --> 00:27:44,083 made on the Silk Road. And he's discovered the amazing cloth 291 00:27:44,114 --> 00:27:48,442 that doesn't burn. And here we are, now on the edge of the 292 00:27:48,494 --> 00:27:52,758 Taklimakan, heading to the fabled land of Xanadu, and the 293 00:27:52,810 --> 00:27:57,857 magnificent palace of the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan. And perhaps 294 00:27:57,909 --> 00:28:02,633 his biggest challenge lies ahead of him: crossing this unending, 295 00:28:03,384 --> 00:28:08,358 unbearable desert, which in its native language means "go in, 296 00:28:08,546 --> 00:28:09,860 and you won't come out." 297 00:28:14,771 --> 00:28:17,659 Marco Polo's book: When travelers are on the move by 298 00:28:17,711 --> 00:28:22,258 night, and one of them chances to lag behind, he will hear 299 00:28:22,310 --> 00:28:26,939 spirits talking, and will suppose them to be his comrades, 300 00:28:27,252 --> 00:28:32,800 and thus shall a traveler be led astray, so that he never finds 301 00:28:32,853 --> 00:28:37,451 his party, and in this way, many have perished. 302 00:28:52,935 --> 00:28:55,448 Michael Yamashita: Well, here I am in the Taklimakan, the 303 00:28:55,500 --> 00:29:02,112 hottest and driest desert in all of China. It gives you a real 304 00:29:02,164 --> 00:29:07,138 appreciation for what Marco Polo must have gone through, spending 305 00:29:07,169 --> 00:29:13,623 two months crossing over this same waste land of sand, 100 306 00:29:13,676 --> 00:29:18,973 degree heat. You're always feeling dry. You're never quite 307 00:29:19,025 --> 00:29:22,695 comfortable, it's the sand that's itching or the sweat 308 00:29:22,747 --> 00:29:26,325 that's dripping down your brow. It must have been the hardest 309 00:29:26,377 --> 00:29:27,472 part of his journey. 310 00:29:40,203 --> 00:29:42,779 Dr. Frances Wood: From very early on, people cast doubt on 311 00:29:42,831 --> 00:29:46,470 Marco Polo. First of all, people didn't believe what was written 312 00:29:46,522 --> 00:29:50,683 how vast and enormous China was. Then you get, more in the 19th 313 00:29:50,715 --> 00:29:53,102 century, people start questioning whether it was 314 00:29:53,155 --> 00:29:57,878 possible to get from X to Y in the sort of time he states. And 315 00:29:57,909 --> 00:30:00,891 gradually I think if you build up, if you were to build up the 316 00:30:00,944 --> 00:30:04,176 doubts that have been expressed over the centuries, you start to 317 00:30:04,228 --> 00:30:07,179 see that there are very real questions about Marco Polo, but 318 00:30:07,231 --> 00:30:10,735 they never quite defeat those who want him to have been there. 319 00:30:14,144 --> 00:30:16,564 Michael Yamashita: So here we are now an Aksai on the edge of 320 00:30:16,617 --> 00:30:21,006 the desert and we've run into these nomadic people or former 321 00:30:21,058 --> 00:30:29,400 nomads. They're Kazhaks and would you believe it? It's a 322 00:30:29,598 --> 00:30:33,644 wedding. As I often say, photographers are paid to be 323 00:30:33,696 --> 00:30:34,322 lucky. 324 00:30:44,239 --> 00:30:49,254 Okay, so this is the, this is the bride being brought to the 325 00:30:49,306 --> 00:30:57,043 groom's neighborhood and she just got off the car. She 326 00:30:57,096 --> 00:30:59,921 doesn't have her full get up on but boy, does she look great 327 00:30:59,973 --> 00:31:05,315 wearing red, I can't believe it. 328 00:31:11,955 --> 00:31:15,062 The groom's coming in to meet the family. Everybody's 329 00:31:15,115 --> 00:31:15,740 welcoming them. 330 00:31:27,658 --> 00:31:30,578 Look at all the guests, look at these babes, look at these women 331 00:31:30,630 --> 00:31:33,634 wearing these incredibly colorful dresses. 332 00:31:35,167 --> 00:31:36,835 Unknown: This must be the bride's mother. 333 00:31:40,485 --> 00:31:42,945 Michael Yamashita: They don't even need music to dance here. 334 00:31:47,054 --> 00:31:50,005 Alright I don't know what rhythm these ladies are dancing to but 335 00:31:50,057 --> 00:31:55,249 I don't hear any music. (Foreign language) 336 00:32:13,581 --> 00:32:15,781 Marco Polo's book: Those who have reared the sheep, bring it 337 00:32:15,833 --> 00:32:23,603 with their children and perform a solemn act of devotion. They 338 00:32:23,655 --> 00:32:28,629 will have the sheep slaughtered and cooked, they have the head, 339 00:32:28,816 --> 00:32:31,569 feet, entrails and fleece. 340 00:33:26,936 --> 00:33:31,279 Whoa whoa (singing). 341 00:33:38,279 --> 00:33:44,937 In rereading my copy of Marco Polo last night, regarding his time spent in 342 00:33:44,989 --> 00:33:50,599 Dunhuang, I was struck by the similarity, or not even 343 00:33:50,651 --> 00:33:56,480 similarity, how exactly he described a sheep sacrifice, in 344 00:33:56,532 --> 00:34:03,257 this case for the protection of the children, and how that just 345 00:34:03,414 --> 00:34:11,496 exactly fit what we saw here at the wedding last night. Of 346 00:34:11,548 --> 00:34:15,437 course, his critics say it's not what Marco described that raises 347 00:34:15,489 --> 00:34:18,086 doubts. It's what he failed to mention. 348 00:34:18,305 --> 00:34:21,037 Dr. Frances Wood: There are some very serious omissions which do 349 00:34:21,089 --> 00:34:23,383 really seriously make one question whether this is an 350 00:34:23,435 --> 00:34:26,573 eyewitness account. He doesn't, for example, in China, mention 351 00:34:26,626 --> 00:34:30,921 chopsticks once. He doesn't mention drinking tea, although 352 00:34:30,974 --> 00:34:33,331 his defenders would say, "well, that's because he didn't like 353 00:34:33,383 --> 00:34:36,303 tea, perhaps he preferred wine because he was Italian." He 354 00:34:36,355 --> 00:34:38,712 doesn't mention the bound feet that he might have seen on 355 00:34:38,764 --> 00:34:42,747 certain Chinese women. So these omissions are a slight problem. 356 00:34:46,553 --> 00:34:49,034 Michael Yamashita: I think it's important to show not only what 357 00:34:49,086 --> 00:34:52,819 Marco described, but what he didn't describe and try to come 358 00:34:52,872 --> 00:34:57,199 to some answers to why he didn't describe it. I'm looking for the 359 00:34:57,251 --> 00:35:01,798 famous village with the women with the bound feet. Now bound 360 00:35:01,850 --> 00:35:04,113 feet women don't exist everywhere in China because it 361 00:35:04,165 --> 00:35:09,087 was banned about 100 years ago. But in these far off provinces 362 00:35:09,139 --> 00:35:13,122 and faraway villages, there still exist quite a few of these 363 00:35:13,174 --> 00:35:17,251 women who are now in their 80s and 90s. This particular village 364 00:35:17,303 --> 00:35:20,442 is famous because they formed a troupe called the little feet 365 00:35:20,494 --> 00:35:24,405 dancing troupe, so I know they're here. Now one of the 366 00:35:25,156 --> 00:35:30,703 biggest arguments by those non believers in Marco Polo is this 367 00:35:30,755 --> 00:35:37,710 bound foot issue. However, I think he did talk about it. He 368 00:35:37,762 --> 00:35:42,684 describes the women's gait as being very dainty, and that 369 00:35:42,736 --> 00:35:48,377 they, each step is only a hair's breadth in front of the next 370 00:35:48,429 --> 00:35:53,602 step. That, to me, is describing the way a bound foot woman 371 00:35:53,654 --> 00:35:57,887 walks. The other thing is, he would not have seen them since 372 00:35:57,940 --> 00:36:03,299 they all wore long dresses in those days. And therefore, in my 373 00:36:03,351 --> 00:36:08,137 opinion, for sure, he talks about the bound feet without 374 00:36:08,169 --> 00:36:11,672 ever having seen them. These women have the smallest feet 375 00:36:12,548 --> 00:36:13,236 I've ever seen. 376 00:36:29,003 --> 00:36:34,081 So May, I understand these women are have this smallest feet in 377 00:36:34,133 --> 00:36:39,712 the village? Yeah. Can you ask how old was she when they bound 378 00:36:39,764 --> 00:36:44,106 her feet? (Chinese translator with elderly women). 379 00:36:54,592 --> 00:37:02,934 Four to five years old. 4 to 5? 380 00:37:08,857 --> 00:37:13,059 Translator: So at that time, the women they have to have a very 381 00:37:13,112 --> 00:37:19,284 smaller, very small feet so that they can marry a very good 382 00:37:19,336 --> 00:37:21,714 person, rich person. 383 00:37:22,934 --> 00:37:24,414 Michael Yamashita: Could I, could I take a look at that 384 00:37:24,467 --> 00:37:32,809 shoe? (Chinese translator) And who makes these shoes. 385 00:37:40,014 --> 00:37:46,969 Translator: she wear eyeglasses and made this. Oh, yeah, you 386 00:37:47,021 --> 00:37:48,867 might have the people to do for her. 387 00:37:50,275 --> 00:37:53,528 Michael Yamashita: Do you mind if I, I see the size comparison. 388 00:37:54,685 --> 00:38:01,516 Unbelievable. But what really is amazing to me is they've been 389 00:38:01,568 --> 00:38:05,739 able to have a pretty darn normal life. And obviously, 390 00:38:05,791 --> 00:38:10,087 there's no shame to this, they seem to be very proud of their 391 00:38:10,139 --> 00:38:20,481 feet. It's just an amazing practice. Now, I'm not a 392 00:38:20,681 --> 00:38:25,572 scholar. So I decided to talk to Professor Liu, a historian and 393 00:38:25,625 --> 00:38:30,452 specialist in Marco Polo. Professor Liu, we're in a tea 394 00:38:30,504 --> 00:38:34,425 house, drinking some very good Chinese tea and I'm going to ask 395 00:38:34,477 --> 00:38:39,169 you therefore, what about the omissions of Marco Polo, the 396 00:38:39,263 --> 00:38:43,799 fact that he never mentioned tea, or chopsticks, for example. 397 00:39:12,923 --> 00:39:14,028 Michael Yamashita: So they wouldn't have he wouldn't have 398 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:18,940 met many Chinese. As Marco rarely interacted with the lowly 399 00:39:18,992 --> 00:39:22,903 Chinese, no wonder he didn't pick up many of their customs. 400 00:39:23,747 --> 00:39:27,626 But still, how do you explain Marco's most glaring omission: 401 00:39:27,876 --> 00:39:31,828 his failure to mention China's greatest landmark, the Great 402 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:32,506 Wall. 403 00:39:41,829 --> 00:39:47,157 The Great Wall of China. Over 2000 years old, over 4000 miles 404 00:39:47,209 --> 00:39:50,723 long. It's been built and rebuilt by countless ruling 405 00:39:50,775 --> 00:39:55,467 dynasties. How come Marco Polo never mentioned it in his book. 406 00:39:56,218 --> 00:40:00,420 It's here in Jiayuguan that the mystery of Marco Polo starts to 407 00:40:00,472 --> 00:40:01,254 fall apart. 408 00:40:03,538 --> 00:40:09,336 As any Chinese scholar can tell you, it was this wall, this 10 409 00:40:09,389 --> 00:40:16,500 foot high maybe, mud wall that Marco Polo saw when he traveled 410 00:40:16,552 --> 00:40:24,894 through here in 1275. Now this wall is the Han Wall, built 411 00:40:25,717 --> 00:40:31,640 somewhere around AD 200, just pretty much a lump wandering 412 00:40:31,692 --> 00:40:39,023 through the desert. And if I was Marco Polo, I wouldn't have paid 413 00:40:39,075 --> 00:40:45,686 it a second glance, especially after the walls that he saw and 414 00:40:45,738 --> 00:40:51,598 commented in places like Bam in Iran, the world's biggest 415 00:40:51,651 --> 00:40:56,968 citadel, the Great Wall, in his day was just not great. 416 00:41:04,779 --> 00:41:08,700 It's the Ming wall that all the tourists go to in Beijing that 417 00:41:08,752 --> 00:41:13,100 gives the great to the Great Wall. And that was built 300 418 00:41:13,131 --> 00:41:15,853 years after Marco came this way. 419 00:41:33,528 --> 00:41:39,607 This is it. End of the Great Wall? No way to go this way. No 420 00:41:39,659 --> 00:41:43,705 way to go that way either with a mountains. Marco Polo had to 421 00:41:43,757 --> 00:41:48,960 have passed through here as all, everybody did coming into China 422 00:41:49,012 --> 00:41:49,920 from the west. 423 00:41:54,174 --> 00:41:58,585 By now, the Polos have traveled perhaps 1300 miles in China, 424 00:41:58,898 --> 00:42:02,777 about halfway to Shangdu. And I was getting a little hungry. 425 00:42:08,230 --> 00:42:15,176 So the real question for me is, did Marco Polo bring spaghetti 426 00:42:15,207 --> 00:42:26,549 and ravioli from Italy to China? Or did he bring noodles and 427 00:42:26,625 --> 00:42:34,966 jiaozi from China to Italy? And the real answer is the Arabs 428 00:42:35,665 --> 00:42:39,742 brought noodles both to China and Italy well before Marco Polo 429 00:42:39,794 --> 00:42:45,405 ever arrived here. But for me, I don't care either way. I just 430 00:42:45,457 --> 00:42:50,931 like to taste the noodles: pasta or Chinese noodles, either way, 431 00:42:51,682 --> 00:42:53,121 one of my favorite foods. 432 00:43:01,598 --> 00:43:05,644 As we approach Inner Mongolia, I'm hoping to see the famous 433 00:43:05,696 --> 00:43:09,680 Mongolian horses that so impressed Marco and helped the 434 00:43:09,732 --> 00:43:13,548 Mongols create the biggest empire the world has ever known. 435 00:43:23,621 --> 00:43:27,635 Must have been an amazing sight to see: hundreds of 1000s of 436 00:43:27,688 --> 00:43:35,488 these horses, and men going over these hills. They went off to 437 00:43:35,540 --> 00:43:39,774 battle, they didn't have to carry oats or grain to feed the 438 00:43:39,826 --> 00:43:43,934 horses because the horses just lived off the land. They, of 439 00:43:43,986 --> 00:43:45,613 course, lived off the horses 440 00:43:53,558 --> 00:43:56,342 You know I need to be a little closer. Let's go this way 441 00:44:04,018 --> 00:44:07,375 They'd be on a horse march and going hungry for a couple of 442 00:44:07,427 --> 00:44:13,444 days they actually slit the horse's vein and drink the blood 443 00:44:13,496 --> 00:44:20,326 as it splurted out and then sew it up and on they went. And you 444 00:44:20,378 --> 00:44:27,146 can imagine how an army of that toughness and mobility on horses 445 00:44:27,198 --> 00:44:35,540 could really cover ground over this flat land. We're getting 446 00:44:35,894 --> 00:44:39,471 close to Xanadu and Marco Polo must have been in great 447 00:44:39,523 --> 00:44:44,976 anticipation. Kublai Khan was, and I quote, "the most powerful 448 00:44:45,028 --> 00:44:50,076 man in people and in lands and in treasure that was ever in the 449 00:44:50,128 --> 00:44:58,470 world." This is where the Great Khan reined three months of the 450 00:44:58,699 --> 00:45:07,020 year. All that is left now is rubble. 451 00:45:16,385 --> 00:45:24,153 Hey, we finally made it. Here we are. Shangdu, or Xanadu, as 452 00:45:24,205 --> 00:45:29,439 Coleridge called it. Marco Polo's destination. This is what 453 00:45:29,491 --> 00:45:33,433 he came to see. This is where it where he came to meet the Khan. 454 00:45:33,996 --> 00:45:37,854 And boy, he must have been impressed. Figure this guy's 455 00:45:37,906 --> 00:45:41,046 been traveling for three and a half years; it only took us 456 00:45:41,098 --> 00:45:45,790 what, a little over three weeks. He gets here after crossing 457 00:45:45,821 --> 00:45:49,679 hundreds of miles of desert and he sees this green, and these 458 00:45:49,731 --> 00:45:55,936 walls. You can imagine what it must have been like. I'm 459 00:45:55,988 --> 00:46:00,690 standing on the gate here, on the outside wall. It's the 460 00:46:00,742 --> 00:46:05,195 southern gate, as you can see, the sun is down this way, 461 00:46:05,247 --> 00:46:10,889 directly west. This city has been laid down in a grid. You 462 00:46:10,941 --> 00:46:15,863 can see the outer wall coming down this way, going down that 463 00:46:15,915 --> 00:46:20,993 way to the east and coming around pretty well defined all 464 00:46:21,045 --> 00:46:22,015 the way out there. 465 00:46:38,751 --> 00:46:42,828 Yeah, Marco talks about these, what I think is a roof tile and 466 00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:46,426 the shine it gives off 700 years ago and you can still find them 467 00:46:46,478 --> 00:46:50,200 sitting on the ground here in the middle of the of Xanadu. 468 00:47:01,337 --> 00:47:05,696 When I read Marco Polos description of the palace, I'm 469 00:47:05,748 --> 00:47:12,098 seeing the Forbidden City, in my mind's eye. The checkerboard 470 00:47:12,943 --> 00:47:18,542 pattern, the north south axis, the way it's laid out, the 471 00:47:18,573 --> 00:47:26,249 doubled walls, the huge halls that could seat 6000 banqueters 472 00:47:26,301 --> 00:47:31,942 at one sitting. What he describes is what I feel here 473 00:47:31,994 --> 00:47:36,279 and what I'm seeing is, is indeed this Forbidden City, but 474 00:47:36,561 --> 00:47:41,232 the actual Palace was destroyed, as were most remnants of the 475 00:47:41,284 --> 00:47:48,177 Yuan Dynasty. Wow! Can you believe this? I've been here at 476 00:47:48,229 --> 00:47:51,671 least a half a dozen times. And every time I come here, I'm just 477 00:47:52,203 --> 00:47:58,157 totally blown away by the scale and grandeur. I feel like I'm on 478 00:47:58,209 --> 00:48:03,099 a movie set. And just think what Marco Polo must have felt: a 479 00:48:03,151 --> 00:48:08,667 small town guy, and he comes to this amazing city, with over a 480 00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,515 million population. He must have been totally blown away. This 481 00:48:12,567 --> 00:48:16,259 must have absolutely floored him to see something like this. 482 00:48:33,151 --> 00:48:37,353 From Xanadu, Marco travelled to Daidu, the New City being built 483 00:48:37,405 --> 00:48:42,390 by the Khan. Today, it's called Beijing. And you can still find 484 00:48:42,442 --> 00:48:45,414 Marco's legacy and China's bustling capitol. 485 00:48:47,260 --> 00:48:49,835 Marco Polo's book: There is not a bridge in the world to compare 486 00:48:49,887 --> 00:48:54,590 with it. It has 24 arches, and is built entirely of gray 487 00:48:54,642 --> 00:48:58,750 marble. At the foot of the column is a marble lion. And on 488 00:48:58,803 --> 00:49:02,973 top of the column, another of great beauty and size and fine 489 00:49:03,025 --> 00:49:03,745 workmanship. 490 00:49:06,550 --> 00:49:09,158 Michael Yamashita: You know, Marco Polo was totally impressed 491 00:49:09,210 --> 00:49:16,352 by this bridge, and described it in a lot of detail. And 492 00:49:16,404 --> 00:49:20,137 therefore, to this day, his name's on it. This is the Marco 493 00:49:20,189 --> 00:49:26,519 Polo Bridge. But, you know, I've been here photographing this 494 00:49:26,571 --> 00:49:31,837 thing for half a day now. And I still can't, couldn't have told 495 00:49:31,889 --> 00:49:37,906 you how many arches are here, unless I specifically focused on 496 00:49:37,958 --> 00:49:43,850 that and counted them. So those who doubt Marco Polo are saying 497 00:49:43,902 --> 00:49:49,793 that he didn't get the arches right. And I'm saying, who's 498 00:49:49,845 --> 00:49:56,550 counting? He also talked about the the lions up there on the 499 00:49:56,602 --> 00:50:02,244 columns, and he got the lion on top right. But he also mentioned 500 00:50:02,296 --> 00:50:06,342 there was a lion on the bottom. So again, the doubters say, 501 00:50:06,394 --> 00:50:09,960 well, look, he mentioned two lions and there's only one. But 502 00:50:09,991 --> 00:50:18,333 for a guy who supposedly wrote the book without taking notes, I 503 00:50:18,750 --> 00:50:24,069 say it's an amazing feat that he got as much right as he did on 504 00:50:24,100 --> 00:50:29,272 some detail, like a column and how many lions were carved 505 00:50:29,324 --> 00:50:33,464 either top or bottom. It was here that Marco became a 506 00:50:33,516 --> 00:50:37,530 trusted, confidant to the Khan, working as an emissary and 507 00:50:37,582 --> 00:50:40,617 traveling to the furthest reaches of the Mongol Empire. 508 00:50:41,430 --> 00:50:45,100 Marco could not have imagined what the next 17 years would 509 00:50:45,152 --> 00:50:49,261 bring: the vast cities and strange customs he's going to 510 00:50:49,313 --> 00:50:54,673 see; people who dined on raw flesh; Chinese cities far more 511 00:50:54,726 --> 00:51:02,807 advanced than those of the West. Could any of this be true? We 512 00:51:02,859 --> 00:51:07,092 have to make sure that what we are photographing is accurate. 513 00:51:07,144 --> 00:51:11,096 Who, what, when, where, why are the main questions when I'm 514 00:51:11,148 --> 00:51:17,885 writing up my notes. And at the end of every morning or every 515 00:51:17,937 --> 00:51:23,724 session of pictures, I like to sit down logging my film and 516 00:51:23,756 --> 00:51:26,925 write as much detail as I can about the subject that is 517 00:51:26,978 --> 00:51:27,666 photographed. 518 00:51:33,265 --> 00:51:38,750 Somehow I think Marco Polo in many of the sections in the book 519 00:51:38,802 --> 00:51:43,787 has had to have written from notes. The reason is, it's just 520 00:51:43,839 --> 00:51:48,260 too detailed and too accurate. There are other sections that 521 00:51:48,312 --> 00:51:53,078 you can tell he's just sort of his writing from memory because 522 00:51:53,130 --> 00:51:54,569 there's no detail there. 523 00:52:11,013 --> 00:52:14,871 I don't know about you, but for me, it's very hard to remember 524 00:52:14,923 --> 00:52:21,096 what I shot yesterday or did yesterday, let alone three weeks 525 00:52:21,148 --> 00:52:24,412 or three years ago. In Marco's case, some of the stuff he's 526 00:52:24,464 --> 00:52:29,417 writing down is 30 years old before he gets around writing 527 00:52:29,469 --> 00:52:36,206 about it. So, either he has had an amazing memory or he took 528 00:52:36,258 --> 00:52:41,930 notes. Perhaps that was when he was working as a envoy for the 529 00:52:41,983 --> 00:52:46,529 Khan. Traveling on his behalf, he took notes in order to better 530 00:52:46,581 --> 00:52:50,376 explain what he was seeing in some of these far flung 531 00:52:50,429 --> 00:52:51,211 provinces. 532 00:53:04,037 --> 00:53:07,832 This is the Grand Canal of Yangzhou: a manmade waterway 533 00:53:07,884 --> 00:53:12,326 Marco described as stretching nearly 1100 miles from Beijing. 534 00:53:13,703 --> 00:53:17,623 Marco Polo's book: So that this Yangzhou, is you see, a city of 535 00:53:17,676 --> 00:53:23,223 great importance and Msr. Marco Polo himself, of whom this book 536 00:53:23,275 --> 00:53:28,604 speaks, did govern this city for full years, by the order of the 537 00:53:28,656 --> 00:53:29,501 Great Khan. 538 00:53:35,194 --> 00:53:39,271 Michael Yamashita: We're in Yangzhou, where Marco supposedly 539 00:53:39,323 --> 00:53:42,743 lived for three years and supposedly he was the governor 540 00:53:42,795 --> 00:53:47,123 here. Now, most experts figure that he couldn't have been 541 00:53:47,175 --> 00:53:50,690 governor, otherwise there would have been some mention of him in 542 00:53:50,742 --> 00:53:53,620 Chinese texts about the period. 543 00:53:54,026 --> 00:53:55,663 Dr. Frances Wood: I think one of the most serious problems about 544 00:53:55,716 --> 00:53:58,072 Marco Polo is the fact that he doesn't appear in any of the 545 00:53:58,124 --> 00:54:01,200 Chinese or indeed the Mongol records of the periods. The 546 00:54:01,252 --> 00:54:03,734 Chinese were the biggest bureaucrats in the world. They 547 00:54:03,786 --> 00:54:06,424 wrote everything down. They recorded everything. Every 548 00:54:06,476 --> 00:54:09,709 governor of every city, every small official. Marco Polo and 549 00:54:09,761 --> 00:54:12,774 his family do not appear anywhere. There are records of 550 00:54:12,826 --> 00:54:16,435 other Europeans listed in the Chinese annals, but nothing 551 00:54:16,487 --> 00:54:20,408 about the Polos, and believe me, Chinese historians, European 552 00:54:20,460 --> 00:54:22,963 historians have been searching for the last couple of 100 553 00:54:22,994 --> 00:54:26,435 years, and we found nothing. That's a very serious problem. 554 00:54:51,054 --> 00:54:54,964 Michael Yamashita: The belief is that he was actually a lower 555 00:54:55,058 --> 00:55:00,918 ranking public servant, perhaps a salt administrator. And the 556 00:55:00,970 --> 00:55:04,828 reason why they think that is because he's knows a lot about 557 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:09,897 salt and Yangzhou was where all the salt in China was coming 558 00:55:09,949 --> 00:55:15,277 from at the time. It was very close to the sea. And anyway 559 00:55:15,329 --> 00:55:20,407 where we are now is actually in a salt administrator's house, 560 00:55:20,460 --> 00:55:25,100 which is a pretty nice place. It is a little strange that if he 561 00:55:25,152 --> 00:55:28,196 indeed did live here for three years, he certainly had very 562 00:55:28,249 --> 00:55:31,981 little to say about it. It was almost as if he was saving all 563 00:55:32,034 --> 00:55:35,799 his praise for the next town we're going to which is 564 00:55:35,851 --> 00:55:40,043 Hangzhou, which he described as the greatest city in the world. 565 00:55:47,769 --> 00:55:51,533 Marco Polo's book: The city is beyond dispute the finest and 566 00:55:51,585 --> 00:55:53,149 noblest in the world. 567 00:56:00,700 --> 00:56:04,339 Michael Yamashita: To me, Hangzhou is a no brainer. It was 568 00:56:04,391 --> 00:56:08,207 the greatest city in the world. He called it the city of heaven. 569 00:56:09,177 --> 00:56:14,130 And it was the London, the Paris, the Rome, the Beijing of 570 00:56:14,182 --> 00:56:22,263 its day. So of course, a young guy is going to be interested in 571 00:56:22,315 --> 00:56:25,611 hanging out here and in describing it in in great 572 00:56:25,663 --> 00:56:30,918 detail. You know if you substitute the word market for 573 00:56:32,201 --> 00:56:40,501 great shopping. If you talk about, he talks about food, well 574 00:56:40,553 --> 00:56:48,008 think: restaurants. He talks about the elegant ladies and the 575 00:56:48,061 --> 00:56:52,326 wine, substitute that for like, nightlife, and realizing the guy 576 00:56:52,378 --> 00:56:58,697 is in his, like 20s. He was just having a great time here. 577 00:57:07,644 --> 00:57:12,159 When Marco described this, it was pretty much the first first 578 00:57:12,211 --> 00:57:17,008 time anybody ever described aquaculture - and that was 700 579 00:57:17,060 --> 00:57:22,879 years ago. They, they raise the fish here in the lake and then 580 00:57:23,098 --> 00:57:27,550 take them on a regular basis. And he was, he thought it was 581 00:57:27,602 --> 00:57:32,242 amazing that people had a full time living as fishermen. So I 582 00:57:32,294 --> 00:57:35,151 guess fishermen in Venice would only go out on occasion or 583 00:57:35,203 --> 00:57:38,498 something. And for him, it was a big deal that these guys made a 584 00:57:38,551 --> 00:57:46,372 living, just fishing. It's not hard to understand why Venetians 585 00:57:46,810 --> 00:57:50,543 couldn't believe what Marco Polo was telling them. The numbers 586 00:57:50,595 --> 00:57:59,937 alone: 1.6 million houses here. 12,000 bridges. Partiers - 1000s 587 00:58:00,886 --> 00:58:07,488 going to weddings on the island. Pleasure seekers. In medieval 588 00:58:07,519 --> 00:58:14,495 Venice, a city of maybe 100,000 people, there was no time for 589 00:58:14,526 --> 00:58:18,499 leisure. And here on the other side of the world, was this 590 00:58:18,780 --> 00:58:25,329 incredible city, so far superior to anything in the West. People 591 00:58:25,381 --> 00:58:27,883 here had just so much better a life. 592 00:58:38,645 --> 00:58:42,409 While working on behalf of the Great Khan, Marco Polo travelled 593 00:58:42,461 --> 00:58:46,006 to the remotest parts of the empire, encountering many 594 00:58:46,059 --> 00:58:50,229 strange people, but none that he relished more than those of the 595 00:58:50,282 --> 00:58:52,346 land they call Tibet. 596 00:58:57,330 --> 00:59:01,346 Marco Polo's book: Men of extraordinary abstinence: all 597 00:59:01,398 --> 00:59:05,381 their life long, they eat nothing but bran, which they 598 00:59:05,433 --> 00:59:11,168 take mixed with hot water. That is their food, bran, and nothing 599 00:59:11,220 --> 00:59:12,033 but bran. 600 00:59:36,778 --> 00:59:40,375 Michael Yamashita: I'm in a Tibetan village above Labrang 601 00:59:40,500 --> 00:59:45,193 monastery. And I'm sitting down with a bunch of young lamas 602 00:59:45,224 --> 00:59:52,169 about to have breakfast. What we're looking at here is some 603 00:59:52,858 --> 00:59:58,937 yak butter tea. That's the yak butter. A big chunk of it into 604 00:59:58,989 --> 01:00:12,330 my smoky tea. And this is the staple of the Tibetan diet. 605 01:00:15,255 --> 01:00:30,598 Not bad. Kinda like rancid milk on top of smokey tea. Okay, and so 606 01:00:31,022 --> 01:00:36,381 he's putting in some tsampa, which is bran. Marco Polo 607 01:00:36,433 --> 01:00:43,389 describes this. He describes the lamas as eating nothing but this 608 01:00:43,441 --> 01:00:48,040 bran. Okay, well, why don't you guys make me one. I don't think 609 01:00:49,260 --> 01:00:53,180 I've got quite the skill. Marco also talks about how dirty the 610 01:00:53,232 --> 01:00:59,781 Tibetans are and the fact that they only wash maybe once a 611 01:00:59,833 --> 01:01:07,915 year. However, they definitely have to use their hands to make 612 01:01:07,967 --> 01:01:14,630 this tsampa. I think that's enough of that. 613 01:01:18,446 --> 01:01:20,949 Marco Polo's book: They have immense minsters and abbeys, 614 01:01:20,980 --> 01:01:25,088 some of them as big as a small town, with more than 2000 monks 615 01:01:25,140 --> 01:01:31,438 in a single abbey. These monks have their head and beard 616 01:01:31,490 --> 01:01:32,116 shaven. 617 01:01:48,477 --> 01:01:52,794 Michael Yamashita: 2000 monks, heads shaven, beards shaven, 618 01:01:53,576 --> 01:01:59,312 eating tsampa and worshipping their gods. It's as like nothing 619 01:01:59,364 --> 01:02:04,786 has changed here in 700 years. I come here. I feel like I'm 620 01:02:04,838 --> 01:02:13,180 seeing exactly what Marco saw. Well, this is why Marco, was 621 01:02:14,786 --> 01:02:21,052 called or so called Milione. People couldn't believe his 622 01:02:21,105 --> 01:02:26,621 figures because there were always 10s of 1000s: the 623 01:02:26,674 --> 01:02:31,877 cities, the populations, the number of boats, the number of 624 01:02:31,929 --> 01:02:39,165 bridges. They were always so much bigger than any numbers 625 01:02:39,217 --> 01:02:43,857 that existed in Europe at the time. Who ever heard of a church 626 01:02:43,910 --> 01:02:47,851 in Europe with 2000 monks praying at one time? 627 01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:05,516 Sometimes these, Marco is describing things, obviously 628 01:03:05,568 --> 01:03:09,332 from firsthand. This is one of them. He had to have known these 629 01:03:09,384 --> 01:03:16,017 people and been here to so enthusiastically describe them. 630 01:03:16,767 --> 01:03:20,438 There are other places along the route where he's talking about 631 01:03:20,490 --> 01:03:25,255 cities that he passes by, with two or three sentences, but a 632 01:03:25,307 --> 01:03:29,447 place like this, he obviously has been here because you can 633 01:03:29,499 --> 01:03:34,108 just read the enthusiasm in his words, as he talks about the 634 01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:34,785 place. 635 01:03:36,850 --> 01:03:37,986 Dr. Frances Wood: I think there's no question that he 636 01:03:38,039 --> 01:03:40,666 could have written the book without going to China. Only 100 637 01:03:40,698 --> 01:03:43,868 years later, there was a famous merchant called Pegalotte, who 638 01:03:43,921 --> 01:03:46,433 worked in Antwerp and never went further than the Holy land. And 639 01:03:46,486 --> 01:03:49,968 he wrote quite a famous book on how to trade with China. He even 640 01:03:50,020 --> 01:03:52,377 advised things like taking a woman with you because it wasn't 641 01:03:52,429 --> 01:03:55,380 safe to consort with Chinese ladies. My feeling is that we're 642 01:03:55,432 --> 01:03:58,414 not dealing with an eyewitness account here. I don't think that 643 01:03:58,466 --> 01:04:01,094 Marco Polo went, saw and described. 644 01:04:01,282 --> 01:04:03,200 Michael Yamashita: Certainly some of the things Marco 645 01:04:03,252 --> 01:04:07,142 described does confound the imagination. He claimed he saw 646 01:04:07,194 --> 01:04:12,043 people who dined on raw flesh. This, I had to see for myself. 647 01:04:17,080 --> 01:04:21,063 On behalf of the great Mongol leader, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo 648 01:04:21,115 --> 01:04:24,723 traveled to Yunnan in southern China, encountering many 649 01:04:24,775 --> 01:04:29,165 minority tribes. One thing that astounded him was the fact that 650 01:04:29,217 --> 01:04:36,819 the people here ate their meat raw and obviously they still do. 651 01:04:37,007 --> 01:04:42,575 But I was surprised to find that the the animal they love eating 652 01:04:42,700 --> 01:04:48,623 raw happens to be pork, which is such a no no. I've learned from 653 01:04:48,675 --> 01:04:53,002 childhood that pork always has to be well cooked. And here 654 01:04:53,054 --> 01:04:58,601 these people for 700 years have been eating raw pork. And as you 655 01:04:58,653 --> 01:05:05,443 can see by the healthy faces around here, they don't look 656 01:05:06,068 --> 01:05:07,288 much the worst for it. 657 01:05:20,176 --> 01:05:25,568 As you can see, the kids are used to it, a common scene out 658 01:05:25,620 --> 01:05:26,246 here. 659 01:05:27,372 --> 01:05:32,908 If you want to eat your pig raw, you gotta get it fresh. 660 01:05:52,304 --> 01:05:55,036 I love the way everybody participates. You got all the 661 01:05:55,088 --> 01:06:01,344 kids in here as well looking forward to the feast afterwards. 662 01:06:04,066 --> 01:06:10,958 So now, now they need to burn this pig just to synge the hair 663 01:06:11,010 --> 01:06:13,075 and to sort of sterilize the skin. 664 01:06:21,866 --> 01:06:25,400 Okay, now we got all the women involved in this part. 665 01:06:27,632 --> 01:06:30,416 See the roles: obviously the men control the fire. 666 01:06:32,199 --> 01:06:34,295 These guys look like regular surgeons. 667 01:06:36,172 --> 01:06:44,514 Marco Polo's book: People of that country eat their meat raw 668 01:06:45,807 --> 01:06:51,355 and put in a sauce of garlic and spices and so eat it just as we 669 01:06:51,407 --> 01:06:53,002 eat meat that is dressed. 670 01:06:57,757 --> 01:07:02,397 Michael Yamashita: Not bad. How come you guys aren't eating? Try 671 01:07:02,449 --> 01:07:03,075 some. 672 01:07:12,210 --> 01:07:15,505 These women are kind of beefy, you know. I think, I shouldn't 673 01:07:15,557 --> 01:07:21,667 say beefy, wrong word. They look like they're well fed. And I 674 01:07:21,719 --> 01:07:27,611 assume they must eat quite a big diet of pork here. I always say 675 01:07:27,663 --> 01:07:31,135 that I can pretty much eat whatever anybody else is eating 676 01:07:31,166 --> 01:07:36,214 anywhere in the world. And I trust that those healthy faces 677 01:07:36,266 --> 01:07:40,280 tell me that that meat is perfectly safe. So I'm not 678 01:07:40,333 --> 01:07:46,912 worried about it. Anyway, it was an experience. I don't think I'd 679 01:07:46,964 --> 01:07:50,249 make it a regular part of my menu but in the interests of 680 01:07:50,499 --> 01:07:58,534 Marco Polo, I knew that I had to eat it. 681 01:08:02,693 --> 01:08:05,034 But there are some whoppers in the book, which are 682 01:08:05,171 --> 01:08:06,579 pretty unbelievable. 683 01:08:07,454 --> 01:08:10,843 Dr. Frances Wood: There's all sorts of medieval rubbish, 684 01:08:10,895 --> 01:08:14,691 fable, mixed in with what is generally now treated as a 685 01:08:14,743 --> 01:08:17,715 rather serious geographic text and it makes it quite difficult 686 01:08:17,934 --> 01:08:19,748 to take the serious bit seriously. 687 01:08:20,718 --> 01:08:23,481 Marco Polo's book: And I assure you, all the men of this island 688 01:08:23,533 --> 01:08:27,924 have heads like dogs and teeth and eyes, likewise. In fact in 689 01:08:27,976 --> 01:08:31,386 the face, they are all just like big mastif dogs. 690 01:08:33,700 --> 01:08:36,057 Michael Yamashita: But in China, there are some pretty unusual 691 01:08:36,109 --> 01:08:38,956 practices that do really exist. 692 01:08:51,209 --> 01:08:54,660 Alright, well, we're out here cormorant fishing, mainly 693 01:08:54,712 --> 01:08:59,665 because Marco Polo never talked about cormorants. So we think 694 01:08:59,717 --> 01:09:05,285 that's a good enough reason to be out here photographing this 695 01:09:05,535 --> 01:09:10,582 unusual way of fishing and wonder why Marco didn't talk 696 01:09:10,634 --> 01:09:15,900 about it considering it must not surprise anybody, it certainly 697 01:09:15,952 --> 01:09:22,689 has me surprised. But this is one thing that's hard to 698 01:09:22,741 --> 01:09:28,445 explain. They were fishing back 700 years ago like this. He 699 01:09:28,497 --> 01:09:32,073 probably did see it if he was here but neglected to mention 700 01:09:32,125 --> 01:09:38,986 it, then again, you can't mention everything. Maybe he 701 01:09:39,039 --> 01:09:39,727 just forgot. 702 01:09:41,291 --> 01:09:49,456 And, then again at the end of, on his deathbed, he did say, 703 01:09:50,144 --> 01:09:55,754 I've only told told you half of what I've seen. So this must be 704 01:09:55,806 --> 01:09:59,539 one of the things that he hasn't told us. Maybe was thinking 705 01:09:59,591 --> 01:10:01,343 there would be another chapter sometime. 706 01:10:08,601 --> 01:10:15,827 Oh yeah! Oh gosh, you see the size of that fish! Wow! 707 01:11:02,876 --> 01:11:06,046 After so many years in China, the Polo's must have been 708 01:11:06,098 --> 01:11:12,084 feeling homesick. Marco, only 17 when he set out from Venice, was 709 01:11:12,136 --> 01:11:17,089 now 37. He knew that Kublai Khan's health was failing, and 710 01:11:17,141 --> 01:11:22,365 his regime was losing its grip on power. We're in Zhouzhuang: 711 01:11:22,615 --> 01:11:28,038 Venice of the east. My favorite time of the day: sunrise. The 712 01:11:28,090 --> 01:11:34,326 colors are warm; the light is soft; and everybody's waking up 713 01:11:34,378 --> 01:11:37,266 and doing what they do in the morning. We like to call it 714 01:11:37,318 --> 01:11:43,136 magic hour because good things happen with the light. And this 715 01:11:43,168 --> 01:11:50,029 particular town really fits Marco' description of Suzhou. He 716 01:11:50,081 --> 01:11:55,598 talked about the 2000 bridges and canals all over the city of 717 01:11:55,650 --> 01:12:02,918 Suzhou. And here we have at least 100 still left. So this is 718 01:12:02,970 --> 01:12:09,581 my image of the way Suzhou looked back 700 years ago. And 719 01:12:09,633 --> 01:12:12,052 you could see how he must have felt right at home and maybe 720 01:12:12,104 --> 01:12:19,870 that's the reason why he spent so much time in this area. It just felt like home. 721 01:12:21,922 --> 01:12:26,264 Finally in 1291, the Khan allowed the Polos 722 01:12:26,463 --> 01:12:31,385 to leave. They traveled by sea from southern China via India to 723 01:12:31,437 --> 01:12:35,827 the Persian Gulf and back overland to Venice. Perhaps 724 01:12:35,879 --> 01:12:41,071 there were epidemics, typhoons or shipwrecks for only 18 of the 725 01:12:41,103 --> 01:12:46,182 600 passengers of their Expedition survived. But Marco 726 01:12:46,234 --> 01:12:54,502 arrived in Venice, a rich man, or so they say. A lot of stories 727 01:12:54,555 --> 01:12:58,288 about how Marco came back into Venice. The one I liked the best 728 01:12:58,340 --> 01:13:02,917 is he comes in looking like a beggar. And he is wearing this 729 01:13:02,969 --> 01:13:07,975 ratty old coat. He whips off the coat and pulls out the lining 730 01:13:08,007 --> 01:13:12,886 and inside, the lining is lined with all kinds of gems and 731 01:13:13,199 --> 01:13:19,091 precious, precious stones. And everybody then knows it's Marco 732 01:13:19,143 --> 01:13:22,240 Polo, and he's about to tell the his stories to the world. 733 01:13:25,649 --> 01:13:28,308 Dr. Frances Wood: The great problem with Marco Polo and his 734 01:13:28,465 --> 01:13:31,509 travels or his discovery of the world is that we don't have the 735 01:13:31,561 --> 01:13:34,857 original manuscript. This has disappeared completely. What we 736 01:13:34,909 --> 01:13:38,705 have are a number of manuscripts, which were copied 737 01:13:38,757 --> 01:13:43,543 from copies from copies from copies. There are maybe 150 738 01:13:43,668 --> 01:13:47,558 early manuscripts of the text of Marco Polo, and every single one 739 01:13:47,610 --> 01:13:50,248 of them is different. Now, if you don't have the original 740 01:13:50,300 --> 01:13:53,084 manuscript, it's very difficult to track back to the source. 741 01:13:53,272 --> 01:13:54,804 Where did the stories come from? 742 01:13:56,525 --> 01:13:58,506 Michael Yamashita: Well, there's one thing that a lot of people 743 01:13:58,558 --> 01:14:02,699 don't know. For years, Venice had been fighting a sea war with 744 01:14:02,751 --> 01:14:07,172 its rival Genoa. And shortly after his return, Marco was put 745 01:14:07,224 --> 01:14:13,334 under house arrest. The world's greatest traveler actually wrote 746 01:14:13,386 --> 01:14:18,621 the book from the four walls of a prison cell. It was under 747 01:14:18,673 --> 01:14:22,614 these circumstances that this legendary book was written, 748 01:14:23,240 --> 01:14:27,037 dictated to his cellmate Rustacello, a famous writer 749 01:14:27,089 --> 01:14:30,540 known for his romantic embellishments. So perhaps it 750 01:14:30,592 --> 01:14:34,763 was this ghostwriter, Rustacello, who was responsible 751 01:14:34,815 --> 01:14:36,661 for some of the exaggerations? 752 01:14:38,193 --> 01:14:40,487 Dr. Frances Wood: I think in the end, we've got to try and make a 753 01:14:40,540 --> 01:14:44,554 balance between the theories, the problems, the omissions, the 754 01:14:44,606 --> 01:14:48,829 doubts, and the question of whether he went to China or not. 755 01:14:48,860 --> 01:14:53,710 And for me, it's fairly clear he didn't. But many other people 756 01:14:53,741 --> 01:14:57,005 feel very strongly that he did. I think in the end, we can't 757 01:14:57,057 --> 01:15:00,446 prove anything with fingerprints or DNA by now. 700 years have 758 01:15:00,498 --> 01:15:04,252 passed. And in the end, it's really just a question of faith. 759 01:15:05,722 --> 01:15:09,111 Michael Yamashita: You know, for every argument the naysayers 760 01:15:09,163 --> 01:15:14,616 have about Marco, I've got an answer. And I'm the only one 761 01:15:14,668 --> 01:15:21,405 that's done this trip. It's one thing, reading about it and 762 01:15:21,458 --> 01:15:25,993 figuring out where he went, from a library seat back in London. 763 01:15:26,306 --> 01:15:31,165 But when you're out on the road, you can't help believe, be a big 764 01:15:31,217 --> 01:15:34,377 believer in Marco Polo. He's too right on. 765 01:15:36,035 --> 01:15:38,329 Marco Polo's book: I believe it was God's will that we should 766 01:15:38,381 --> 01:15:41,613 get back in order that people might learn about the things 767 01:15:41,665 --> 01:15:46,119 that the world contains. Never was there a man who ever 768 01:15:46,171 --> 01:15:49,591 traveled over so much of the world, as did that noble and 769 01:15:49,643 --> 01:15:54,241 illustrious citizen of the city of Venice: Msr. Marco Polo. 770 01:15:54,523 --> 01:15:57,088 Thanks be to God. Amen. Amen.