In 1271, a young Italian merchant named Marco Polo embarked on a groundbreaking expedition from Venice, through the Middle East and Central Asia to China. His extraordinary reports of his experiences introduced medieval Europe to an exotic new world of emperors and concubines, amazing cities, huge armies, unusual spices and cuisine, and imperial riches. Marco Polo also revealed the wonders of Xanadu, the summer capital of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan.
Almost 750 years later, acclaimed author John Man traveled in Marco Polo's footsteps to Xanadu and then on to Beijing and through modern China in search of the history behind the legend. In this enthralling chronicle, Man draws on his own journey, new archaeological findings, and deep archival study to paint a vivid picture of Marco Polo and the great court of Kublai Khan.
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“This first-person account of retracing the travels of Marco Polo works well in audio, and Simon Vance is a capable and engaging narrator….Author Man adopts an almost lyrical tone in some of the landscape descriptions, and Vance captures the emotion nicely. The author integrates history and Polo’s accounts into his travelogue, and Vance makes them easy for listeners to follow.”
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