Taylor

March 9,1429 {morning, setting off} Hey it's Francisco DeMio Polo. I am 28 years old. I come from an Italian family. This morning I relized that if I don't buy any soon, I'm going to run out! I'm looking into four different places: One: Chnag'an Two: Samarkand Three: Kashgar Four: Istanbul All of these places are located along the silk road. I'm going to see which city has better silk that I can restock on. I decided to travel on camel and foot. Off I go! My maps of where i'm going. Chang'an Kashgar and Samarkand

March 14,1429 Chang'an is a really big city. It has a decent population number. When going through the city, I noticed people practicing Islam. I suppose that I stopped at what they call a Bell Tower. It marks the start of the Silk Road. There is also a river that starts in the mountains and runs south. We tried to walk close to the river just in case we got thirsty, but the water is nit clean enough to drink. After that we became really thirsty. We also saw some little kids playing in the water. We stopped I saw people selling silk but it wasn't good trading prices. People where trading eleven crops for two pieces of silk. I will now get some sleep so I can be prepared for my next stop, Samarkand, tomorrow.

 April 8, 1429 Samarkand is bigger than Chang'an! It's so big it has it's own Silk Industry. I decided to go in to take a look. There where people cutting silk. It was fun to see them work. Although one worker got cut and we had to help him. There silk is much better than in the other city. It doesn't tear easy like the other silk. It's just like my s <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">ilk that I trade! I was wondering if it's high priced like the others, turns out, it's not! It's only two crops for three peices! That's an amazing trade price! Later we wondered through the city. There are many religions praticed there. One is Buddhism. Another one is Taoism. there are many more too. After all of that, we got hungry and headed to a plain nearby to have lunch. <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">April 29,1429 In Kashgar, we went inside the Arab Caliphate. In there, we learned that Kashgar is also known as Kashi. There were old antiques and we wanted to buy a few but we had to leave. We where really thirsty and still didn't have much water/ We came across a Priests thats name was Han. He believed as one of his traditions, he could supply all needs to who ever is in his presents. In that case, we bought water from him. We began to set up our tent. After we were done we watched the stars in the clear night until we fell asleep. <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">May 18,1429 <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Finally made it to Instanul. It's warm out here. There are several people out here but there aren't speaking my language. This will make it even harder to trade. If I can't trade for the resources we need to go home, then i'll have to stop at another city. Turns out, they have what they call translators here. Translators are people who speak more then one language and can tell you what someone thats not your language is saying. It's really cool. <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">May 27,1429 <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Today we finally made it home. Feels good back at home alone now. My family is so happy to see me. I kept my camels just in case. They live in my back yard. People are coming to get my silk like crazy now. The reason is the new got around from where I bough it from. I decided to get my silk from Samarkand. Over all there silk didn't tear or get dirty either. I'm getting good business and might have to go back to the silk road agian. For now i'm going to catch up on my sleep. So... Night! <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">From: Franchesco DeMio Polo!

http://www.chinaorbit.com/travel/xian-china-travel/history-changan-xian.html http://www.allaboutturkey.com/istanbul.htm http://www.muztagh.com/china-history/kashgar.htm