Marco Polo Essay

702 Words3 Pages
Reaction Paper #1 In the film documentary, “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” we follow the journey of two Queens, NY natives who decide to take on the challenge of travelling the famous Silk Road. The perilous and adventurous path once travelled by Marco Polo himself spans across many countries as well as exposes them to many different cultures and societies. Although much time has passed since Polo’s time, we are surprised to see that many similarities still exist and in some areas, haven’t changed much at all. Interestingly enough theses countries (China, Iran and India) where much trade has occurred have been unaffected and somewhat unattached to the outside Western culture. Upon meeting the Uyghur people in China, it is amazing to see that customs once noted by Marco in his book, The Book of Travels, still exist today. They write all the occupants of the household on the door of the house, as they did in the day s of Kublai Khan. Once used as a census tool, this practice is now done in modern-day China to single out and possibly repress this minority Turkic Muslim group. These hospitable people were open to the foreigners, even willing to help them cross the Desert of Lop in order to continue their journey through Central Asia, risking even the possibility of death. The crossing of the desert alone was interesting as well, due to its proximity to a nuclear test site (which cannot be found on a map to disclose its existence). It saddened me to learn how unjust these people were treated and how opposite they were from the rest of the Chinese culture. Another group of people that seemed to remain unchanged since the time of Marco Polo are the Mongolians. Many housing structures once described by Marco still existed and were still used. Also, like any other self-sustaining community they used every part of the animal for such things as food, clothing,
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