Travels Of Marco Polo: Forty Four: River Yongding

The Great Khan had sent me as his ambassador to the western provinces.  I travelled four months to reach there.  After leaving Kambalu, at a distance of ten miles westward I found a river called Pulisingan [1]which flows on to the ocean. Merchants used to transport their merchandise along this river. Over this, there is a great stone bridge [2] It is 300 paces long and eight paces broad. Ten horsemen can ride abrest over it.  It has twenty four arches, supported by piers in the water, and is wholly of marbles.  At the head of the bridge is a column of marble, above and beneath are beautifully carved lions of the same materials, and about a pace distant is another column, with its lions, and between the two slabs are grey marble, to secure passengers from falling into the water, and the whole bridge thus formed is the most magnificent object in the world.

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1.  Yongding River that originates from Guanshu mountains in Ningwu County, Shanxi province.  It merges with Hai river before it reaches Tianjin and the latter drains into Bohai Bay.

2. The bridge is now called Marco Polo bridge aka Lugou bridge and is located 15 kilometres South-West of Beijing(Kambalu) The bridge was originally constructed in 1192, during the reign of Jin dynasty. It was reconstructed in 1698 during the reign of Quing dynasty.

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