Travels Of Marco Polo: Forty Six

At the end of the journey is a kingdom named Ta-in-fu [1] with a capital of the same name. It contains many arts and much merchandise with large supply of stores necessary for Imperial army. The district presents numerous vineyards, and being only part of Cathay where wine is made, supply it to the surrounding provinces.  It yields also much silk abounding in the trees on which the worms are fed.  A degree of civilization prevails among the people of this country consequent of their intercourse with various towns which lie very near to each other.  The merchants are constantly carrying their goods from one place to another, and trade fairs are frequent.  After five days journey, I am now in Achbaluch, where there are places exclusively reserved for his majesty's hunting. No other persons are allowed to sport in areas exclusively reserved for his majesty.  Only his majesty and his family members, and those who are named in the falconer's list, and high ranking persons are allowed in this area.  The Khan scarcely follows the chase in this area.  And because of this there are plenty of hares and other wild animals that cause destruction to crops.  To remedy this the Khan and his cohorts started hunting in this area and brought down the number of wild animals. I left Ta-in-fu, and rode westward full seven days, touching many districts and meeting many merchants and finally arrived at Pi-an-fu, [2] well known for commerce and silk manufacture.

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1. Not identified. Since he travelled westward it is not Tianjin which is Southeast of Beijing.  As per the foot note, it is in the Shaanxi province of Western China, and name Tai-yuen-fou. But a city by that name cannot be located by Google Maps.  Most probably it is xian, the capital of Shaanxi. Xian includes the formal captals of Fenghao and Chang'an.

2. As per the footnote it is Pin-yang-fou, the second city in Shansee. It probably may be Baoji, because it is the second largest city in Shaanxi

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