Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS to VOL. II
- CHAPTER I ‘A RICH AND NOBLE CITY’
- CHAPTER II THE ANCIENT MARCHES OF TIBET
- CHAPTER III ‘THE ARROW FURNACE FORGE’
- CHAPTER IV THE GREAT PLATEAU
- CHAPTER V THE GREAT PLATEAU–continued
- CHAPTER VI REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND
- CHAPTER VII REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND—Continued
- CHAPTER VIII IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS MARGARY
- CHAPTER IX IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS MARGARY—continued
- APPENDIX A
- APPENDIX B
- APPENDIX C
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER VIII - IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS MARGARY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS to VOL. II
- CHAPTER I ‘A RICH AND NOBLE CITY’
- CHAPTER II THE ANCIENT MARCHES OF TIBET
- CHAPTER III ‘THE ARROW FURNACE FORGE’
- CHAPTER IV THE GREAT PLATEAU
- CHAPTER V THE GREAT PLATEAU–continued
- CHAPTER VI REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND
- CHAPTER VII REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND—Continued
- CHAPTER VIII IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS MARGARY
- CHAPTER IX IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS MARGARY—continued
- APPENDIX A
- APPENDIX B
- APPENDIX C
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Ta-Li-Fu is an ancient city, and was formerly a place of great importance, though now it is little better than a ruin. It is the Carajan of Marco Polo.
It stands at the southern end of a basin, about thirty miles long, entirely enclosed by high mountains. This basin is similar in structure to the plains of Lang-Ch'iung-Hsien and Chien-Ch'uan-Chou, and, like them, is nearly altogether occupied by an extensive lake.
Marco's description of the lake of Yün-Nan may be perfectly well applied to the lake of Ta-Li: ‘There is a lake in this country of a good hundred miles in compass, in which are found great quantities of the best fish in the world.’
The fish were particularly commended to our notice, though we were told that there were no oysters in this lake, as there are said to be in that of Yün-Nan; if the latter statement be true, it would illustrate Polo's account of another lake somewhere in these regions ‘in which are found pearls (which are white but not round).’
Before the Mahometan rebellion the plain used to be well wooded, the villages were embowered amongst noble trees, and the landscape must have been as beautiful as any in China; but now there is not a tree left standing in the length and breadth of the plain.
The lake of Ta-Li is called Erh-Hai, and the city stands about two miles from its edge; in former days the level of the water must have been much higher; and it seems possible that when the city was founded it stood on the shore of the lake.
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- Information
- The River of Golden SandThe Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah, pp. 299 - 346Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1880