Travels Of Marco Polo: Eighty Three

Singui [1] is a very great and noble city.  The people are idolaters, subject to the great Khan, and use paper money. Most of them live by merchandise and arts, raise much silk, make clothes of it interwoven with gold - very costly and fine.  The town is forty miles in circuit, and the number of inhabitants is so great, that no person can count them, and if they were men-at-arms, those of the province of Manji would conquer the whole world; they are not so, however, but prudent merchants, as already observed, skilful in all the arts.  They have also many persons learned in natural science, good physicians, and able philosophers.  The city has 1600 stone bridges under which a galley might pass, and in the mountain adjacent grow rhubarb and ginger in such abundance, that for a Venetian grosso, you may by forty pounds of the latter, fresh and good.  Singui has under it sixteen large cities of arts and trade.  Its name signifies the earth, and another large town near it is called heaven, and these appellations they derive from their great nobleness.  Now, let us depart from this place, and I will tell you of another city called Ungui.  It is a day's journey from Singui, and is large and good, with merchandise and arts; but there is nothing so remarkable about it as to be worth describing; therefore we shall go to delineate another called Ughim.  It is great and rich, the men are idolaters, subject to the great Khan, use paper money, and have abundance of all things.  There is nothing else worth mentioning; therefore I will go on to tell you of the noble city of Kinsai, which is the capital of the Kingdom of Manji.

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1. Singui: The modern day city of Lanxi