He traveled through the Silk Road and on his return. Liu, a travel photographer and outdoor sports veteran, said his team had already spent nine months on preparation for the journey. One of the most famous explorers in history, Marco Polo, is known for his travels to China and India. The 32-year-old Liu, an avid fan of cycling from Quanzhou where Marco Polo reportedly launched his Maritime Silk Road journey for home, told Xinhua that he dreams to follow - on two wheels - the Marco Polo's land road that featured desert, Gobi and other tough landform. His remarks and memories of China were recorded in the book - the Travels of Marco Polo. Marco Polo lived in China for 17 years and left Quanzhou, a coastal city in southeast China's Fujian Province, for home. Some 700 years ago, 17-year-old Italian Marco Polo started his long journey from Venice, crossed the entire Eurasian continent and arrived in Beijing four years later. In his wake followed Columbus (who was inspired by Marco Polo's description of the riches of the Far East), Magellan and Vasco da Gama - and the world was changed forever.Chinese Liu Haixiang and his crew announced on Monday that they plan to ride along Marco Polo's oriental journey from Italy to China.The 18,000-kilometer ride, which is named as the Journey of Silk Road Dream and expected to take one year, is scheduled to start in August and pass through 30 cities of 17 countries and regions in Asia and Europe.

Polo was a forerunner of the great age of exploration. His record of the manners, customs and beliefs of the diverse people he encountered are entertaining and unique. Polo's travels through Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Central Asia and China remained unsurpassed in scope for centuries. Consisting of nearly 150 individual chapters, this beautifully produced edition is perfect for dipping into as well as more serious study.

The original manuscripts have long been lost, but the English translations by William Marsden and Henry Yule, based on hybrid versions, are each regarded as having particular strengths - and this book presents a modernised abridgement of the most reliable passages. With modern China today finally occupying its rightful place on the world stage, Polo's masterpiece remains a fascinating account of 'old China' from a highly observant foreign visitor. The Travels of Marco Polo can rightly be described as the founding adventure book of the modern world. Despite the fact that there was still no printing in Europe, the book was a popular success (in manuscript). In the late 1290s Venetian merchant Marco Polo dictated an account of his own travels in north and south China (Cathay and Manji, in Polo's terminology) to a scribe with whom he shared a prison cell in Genoa.

Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.

Marco polo travels the silk road