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Kublai Khan took a liking to the young Marco Polo and appointed him to high posts in his administration. Already well-traveled and capable of speaking several different languages, Polo was sent by the Khan on a number of special missions to various places in China, Burma, and India.

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The first major city that the Polos reached after the Gobi Desert was Suchow / Shazhou (Dunhuang) in what is today the Gansu Province of China. In Suchow, Marco Polo took a break from traveling and stayed for a year. Situated in an oasis that included the Crescent Lake,

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The Polos reached Kublai Khan’s summer residence Shant-tu in May 1275. Kublai Khan new that they were on their way, and had sent a royal escort to greet them. Shant-tu was the original capital of Kublai Khan’s reign.

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The Gobi Desert is a large desert in Asia, bounded by the Taklamakan Desert to the west and by the North China Plain to the southeast. It is also the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.

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The Polo family pushed on without them, traveling through Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan, and following a route that went over the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia to get to China.

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With them on their new journey east, the Polo family brought letters and gifts from the pope that they were to give to Kublai Khan, and they were also accompanied by two friars.

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In 1271, the Polo brothers embarked on a new journey, and this time the took Marco with them. They had finally been able to deliver the letter from Kublai Khan to the pope, since Teobaldo Visconti had been elected at the conclusion of the papal election that had been running from 1268 to 1271

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The Polo brothers returned to Venice in April 1269 and the now teenaged Marco could finally be reunited with his father.

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He recieved a good education that included, among other things, classes in French and Italian. His native language is believed to have been Venetian. Polo read many classical authors and was also schooled in the Christian teology of the Latin Church. Growing up in a merchantile family, he was taught subjects such as appraising, foreign currency trade, and the handling of cargo ships.

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Marco Polo was born in 1254. His family were Ventians, but it is unclear if he was actually born in Venice or if the birth took place on the island of Curzola off the Dalmatian coast, where his father and uncle had established a trading post. Marco Polo’s mother died when he was just a child, after which he was taken care of by his aunt and uncle.

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One of the most well-known Europeans to travel the silk road in Medieval times was Marco Polo (1245-1324), a merchant, explorer and writer who recorded his travels in the book “Livres des merveilles du monde” (Book of the world’s marvels), published around the year 1300.