[意大利]馬可·波羅/Marco Polo
馬可·波羅（1254-1324），出生於意大利威尼斯城的一個商人家庭，公元1275年隨父親和叔父到達中國，居留了17年，1295年返回故鄉。不久，馬可·波羅參加了對熱那亞城的海戰，兵敗被俘入獄。他在獄中口述了其在東方的見聞，由同獄難友為之筆錄，這就是舉世聞名的《馬可·波羅遊記》。馬可·波羅是中世紀的大旅行家，是使西方人了解中國的重要人物之一。他的遊記不僅在西方世界產生了重大影響，也是中國和西方，特別是中國和意大利人民友好關係的曆史見證。
Upon leaving Va-giu you pass（in the course of three days'journey）many towns, castles, and villages, all of them well inhabited and opulent. At the end of three days you reach the noble and magnificent city of Kin-sai, a name that signifies“the celestial city”。
There are within the city ten principal squares or market-places, besides innumerable shops along the streets. Each side of these squares is half a mile in length, and in front of them is the main street, forty paces in width, and running in a direct line from one extremity of the city to the other. There is an abundant quantity of game of all kinds, such as roebucks, stags, fallow deer, hares, and rabbits, together with partridges, pheasants, francolins, quails, common fowls, capons, and such numbers of ducks and geese as can scarcely be expressed.
At all seasons there is in the markets a great variety of herbs and fruits, and especially pears of an extraordinary size, weighing ten pounds each, that are white in the inside, like paste, and have a very fragrant smell. There are peaches also, in their season, both of the yellow and the white kind, and of a delicious flavour. From the sea, which is fifteen miles distant, there is daily brought up the river, to the city, a vast quantity of fish;and in the lake also there is abundance, which gives employment at all times to persons whose sole occupation it is to catch them.