Did Marco Polo go to China?

Like a gigantic serpent, the Great Wall winds across the Chinese countryside, stretching approximately 6700 km. It was built nearly 2000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), over 1000 years before Marco Polo journeyed to China. Yet Marco never mentions the Great Wall in his book. Could this be proof that he did not go to China as he claimed? (public domain).

Many people in his own day questioned the truth of Marco Polo's Travels. Some of his stories were clearly no more than fairy tales, such as the descriptions of monstrous birds that dropped elephants from the sky and devoured their broken carcasses. These cast doubt on the whole account. Critics today wonder why the Travels made no mention of China's most famous landmark, the Great Wall. Marco Polo claimed that he was in the service of the Great Khan and that he travelled extensively, yet he never learned to speak a word of Chinese and he never mentioned some of the most striking characteristics of everyday life in China, such as the practice of binding women's feet, or calligraphy or drinking tea. Furthermore, the Chinese kept careful records and recorded the names of foreign visitors far less important and illustrious than Marco Polo. Yet his name is nowhere to be found in those records. So did Marco Polo ever go to China?

Learn more:
The Mongols, II: The World of Marco Polo and His Heirs