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→Omissions and exaggerations
====Omissions and exaggerations====
[[File: Marco Polo three.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A portrait of Kublai Khan]]
The Travels of Marco Polo has always divided audiences. Many have treated the book as a work of fiction. There are those who believe that it does give a flawed account of East Asia. Those who are skeptical of the narrative point to the many omissions .<ref> Wood, Frances. "Did Marco Polo Go to China?." Asian Affairs 27, no. 3 (1996): 296-304 </ref>. This has led some to suggest that he only visited the Chinese capital, or only repeated stories he heard from others.
There is, in fact, no mention of the Great Wall of China, which traverses a large part of the north of that vast country. Then while he makes references to many place names, modern scholars have not been able to identify them. Then he failed to mention many customs of the Chinese and Mongols, that would have seemed novel and noteworthy to a European traveler, such as footbinding.<ref> Wood, p 298</ref>
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