Marco Polo
The Venetian trader and adventurer Marco Polo was an exceptionally astute observer as he traveled the caravan routes to China, Tibet, and India, and then returned by sea over twenty years later, with tales of countries few people in Europe had ever seen before. His brother and uncle had travelled there in 1260-65, then returned again four years later, and reported on their meeting with the Kublai Khan at Kaifeng (Beijing) and his request for one hundred Christian missionaries. The Khan's message was ultimately relayed to the Pope but he did not send the requested missionaries. When he left Venice with his father in 1271, Marco Polo was a boy of seventeen, and had no idea what adventures were ahead of him. Virtually no one in the Western world at that time could possibly have known since they literally had no maps of China or the route to get…...

This suggests that Polo feels an obligation to tell his readers, with whom he shares a common sympathy and culture, about the strangeness and wonders of the Orient, prioritizing the strange above the ordinary. Also it implies that these tales seem strange and magic on their surfaces. This hyperawareness of strangeness, in contrast with making strangeness have a veneer of normalcy when talking about different people and places to the 'other' Khan, is obviously not shared with the Marco Polo of Invisible Cities.
The Calvino cities seem to hover in thin air, normal or not, as Polo weaves his web of stories that may or may not be true. There is no urgent 'must' of convincing the reader or Kublai Khan, rather the cities are conjured up through the genius of the author, and the artful nature of storytelling, although Marco Polo's memory is not trustworthy even while "things can…...

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Works Cited

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

Polo, Marco. The Travels: Marco Polo. London: Penguin, 2004

Globalization
The medieval travelogues of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta show how the world is viewed from the lens of our own culture. Polo, the Venetian trader, emphasizes trade in his descriptions of the place he visits while Battuta, the Islamic judge, emphasizes morality in his descriptions of the same places. This framing is not a fault of either writer, but rather it can lend perspective to our own view of the world -- we all see the world through our own lens. Thus, like our two ancient travelers, we characterize the world in terms of juxtapositions -- what is similar to what we know and what is different from what we know. In doing so, we create an artificial division between our culture and all other cultures. The differences and similarities define us. There is nothing inherently wrong with this -- the only important thing is that we always understand…...

If it isn't demons, idols, and black magic, it's sex -- the most repressed impulse in the estern-Christian tradition.
During and after his time in the court of Kubla Khan, one notices an increased tone of rationality in the narrative. Less exoticized details of the life of people in the Orient begin to emerge, such as food and clothing habit, but the earlier sensationalism is not lost entirely -- perhaps cannot be, as it is such an engrained part of the estern perspective when viewing the sights of Asia. He travels to a region he identifies as "Bengala," which according to Latham is likely Bengal but could possibly be Pegu, which was in the process of being conquered during the time of the Great Khan's court (Latham, 189). Though this passage also contains a brief and simple message about the main sources of sustenance for the people in this region,…...

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Works Cited

Polo, Marco (attributed). The Travels of Marco Polo, Ronald Latham. New York: Penguin, 1958.

China and the Mongol Conquest
China and Mongol Conquest

The 13th century saw the influence of the Mongol Empire which Genghis Khan established stretching from the borders of Poland in the west to the East around Yellow Sea. Grandson of Genghis named Kublai Khan was the ruler of this empire in 1260 after which he went a head to consolidate his power when he relinquish the Mongol conquests outside China and established his capital where modern-day Beijing is now located.

As Venetian merchants, Nicolo Polo and his brother traveled overland in 1260 to the Mongol capital where they remained within the court of Khan until when they reached Venice in 1269. The two merchant once again traveled (though dangerous trip) to Kublai Khan's court in 1271 accompanied by their seventeen-year-old son Marco. They had to take three and a half years before their adventure came to an end. After staying with the Khan…...

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References

Jeffrey Hays (2008) "MARCO POLO." http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=48

Morris Rossabi (2004) "The Mongols in China." Columbia University.  http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/china/china.htm

invisible cities all over the world like Ahwaz in south of Iran, that suffer through horrible tragedies and the world won't pay attention to. They are the real life invisible cities. Through literature one is able to empathize to people and situations that otherwise would never be seen or known. Calvino's Invisible City explores the imaginative world of Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
The book discusses the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. The book is put together as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, a busy man with many emperors who talk to him about the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo, the boundless explorer. The largest percentage of the book is of short prose poems describing 55 cities, narrated by the explorer Marco Polo.

Every five to ten cities, there are small dialogues that act as transitions between the two…...

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References

Invisible cities cyclopedia of literary characters, revised third edition. (2012) . Retrieved from  http://www.enotes.com/invisible-cities-salem/invisible-cities 

Calvino, I. (1974). Invisible cities. New York: Harcourt.

(2009). Refugee review tribunal australia. DOI: www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/89/irn35261.pdf.aspx

This era is significant because it was dominated by peace at a local level, political constancy, and economic growth as a result of a dictatorship created by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The moment when he became shogun was very important in Ieyasu's life, as he was provided with the opportunity to commence a plan that he was thinking of long before he came to rule Japan. He sent many of his allies to rule over areas that he considered being potentially hostile in an attempt to have people there change their opinions regarding his personae. This individual was well-acquainted with the fact that control was one of the most effective tools that a leader could use and thus focused on having as much control as possible. Ieyasu's successor further continued his predecessor's system of gaining control over his people and influenced all of the Daimyos in Japan to live in Edo…...

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Works cited:

Henshall, Kenneth, "A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower," (Palgrave Macmillan, 15.05.2012)

Lambert, Tim, "A BRIEF HISTORY of KOREA," Retrieved October 16, 2012, from the a World History Encyclopedia Website:  http://www.localhistories.org/korea.html 

Miles, Nancy, "Footbinding," Retrieved October 16, 2012, from the UCLA Website:  http://www.international.ucla.edu/shenzhen/2002ncta/miles/index.htm 

Seth, Michael J. "A Concise History of Korea: From the Neolithic Period Through the Nineteenth Century," (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)

Improvements to The Chinese System and Ideals Done by Kublai Khan Introduction
Genghis Khan moved his troops into the quasi Chinese Chin-rule north China in 1211, and in 1215 they crushed the capital city. Hisson Ogodei vanquished all of North China by 1234 and ruled it from 1229 to 1241. Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, vanquished the Chinese Southern Song in 1279, and out of the blue all of China was under foreign rule (Johnson, 2014).
In 1271 Kublai Khan named his administration Yuan which signifies "origin of the universe." The Yuan tradition in China kept going from 1279 to 1368. Kublai Khan took after a speculative approach of Sinicization, that is, he adjusted to the Chinese method for administering and when you take a look at his picture, he looks especially like other Chinese rulers. Then again, in spite of the fact that he utilized some Chinese in low positions in the…...

Chinese History
There are a number of factors that contributed to the rise of the Mongols in China. Chief among these is that after the Mongols invaded China, they were able to establish strong political control over the area. This was an extension of the Mongol system of governance that had been utilized in many of the lands conquered by the Mongol empire. Marco Polo, who visited Khanbalik during the reign of Kublai Khan, described the system of governance that the Mongols had imposed on China. They "appointed twelve…barons to supervise all decisions concerning the movement of the armies…" Polo noted that this council led to a high quality of decision-making with respect to resource deployment, and allowed for a stronger overall military presence in China as a result. Polo also noted that this tactic allowed the military leaders to identify the stronger soldiers and units, and cull the weak from…...

It is interesting that descriptions of items such as plumbing and roof tiles can be captivating, but they are, and that is only one of the things that makes this book so unusual. It covers a subject that might not seem to interest many readers, and yet, it is hard to put it down once you begin to read it. This is the mark of a good writer, and it is the mark of a well-written book, as well. This interesting book is very well written, and the vivid descriptions are just part of that. The conversations between Kublai Khan and Polo are interesting and add depth to the book, giving it a sense of real history, rather than the fantasy it really is. It makes the reader want to travel the world, see those incredible cities themselves, and then report back about their adventures, just as Polo does…...

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References

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. New York: Harcourt, 1978.

civilizations have often resulted in dramatic changes to both sides. Peaceful encounters bring transfers to new goods, new technologies and new ideas, while encounters built on conflict can change outlooks, governments and ways of life. A violent culture clash occurred with the Crusades, while a more peaceful meeting of the cultures occurred with traders from Europe (especially Venetians) heading eastward to Asia. These two encounters between civilizations would lead to much of what we see in the geopolitical world today. We have conflict in the Middle East between the Arab world and the Western world. We also see global trade as a major driving force in the world. This trade also would eventually lead to the age of exploration and mass colonization.
The rise of Islam and the response of Christian Europe during the Crusades not only characterized its era, being one of the most important events of the time,…...

138). Despite the contribution these SEZs have made to the Chinese state, Becker cautions that such meteoric growth is probably not sustainable over the long-term. For instance, Becker points out that, "Technology is changing assumptions about the future of industrial labor needs. ecent studies suggest that the link between high growth and job creation may not continue forever. In the 1980s it took a 3% increase in economic growth to produce a 1% increase in employment. By the 1990s, it took more than twice as much growth -- a 7.8% increase -- to achieve the same result. (2006, p. 154).
6.

How has all of China's modernization affected rural China in places as Fengyang?

While the major urban centers of China have enjoyed spectacular growth in recent years, less prosperity (or none at all) has flowed to the country's rural regions such as Fengyang. Fengyang stands out because it was one of…...

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References

Becker, J. (2006). Dragon rising: An inside look at China today. Washington, DC: National

Geographic.

China vs. Europe
Compare the development of science and technology in these two civilizations: China and Europe. In what ways did cultural, social, and political factors influence development of science and technology?

It is easy to view scientific progress in a comparative fashion. hich power was 'better' at scientific progress, China or Europe, one might ask? But such a pairing of opposites is in fact a false dichotomy. Both civilizations saw, over the course of early modernity, tremendous technical as well as intellectual advances in their civilization's understanding of science. However, although Europe's religious and political intransigence to scientific discovery often presented itself as an obstacle, ultimately its greater openness and willingness to study and take into consideration advances of foreign cultures proved its 'making,' while China's geographical and political isolation, for all of its intellectual ferment proved its undoing in terms of becoming an early modern power of scientific discovery and…...

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Works Cited

McClellan James E. And Harold Dorn. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1999.

As these preferences are determined, the algorithm then determines the best invitations to treat to present to the consumers. Today, these processes are powerful and can drive business at these websites, but they do not yet constitute bona fide interaction between the travel provider, the agent (website) and the consumer. Rather, the algorithms merely produce smarter sales pitches. At such a point when algorithms can literally cater to consumers' needs based upon the consumers' interactions the travel industry will be on the cusp of experiencing genuine co-creation. Co-creation at this point, however, is not an automated process. It must be conducted by humans. Given that more people are purchasing travel online than ever before, this would point to a decline in co-creation. It may be, however, that this technology will emerge in the next few years and truly transform the travel industry into one where co-creation is the norm.
Li…...

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Works Cited:

Binkhorst, E. (no date). The co-creation tourism experience. Unpublished. In possession of the author.

Prahalad, C. & Ramaswamy, V. (2004). Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation. Journal of Interactive Marketing. Vol. 18 (3) 5-14.

Porter, M. (1980). Porter's five forces. QuickMBA.com. Retrieved May 1, 2010 from  http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml 

WTO. (2009). Tourism highlights, 2009 edition. United Nations World Tourism Organization. Retrieved May 1, 2010 from  http://www.unwto.org/facts/menu.html

Pei did not stop at this but went ahead to choose Jiang Nan residence primary color, white and grey, and in capturing this Pei used gray granite to replace whitewashed plaster wall dark gray clay tiles. If anyone thinks that these colors are not modern then Jodidio and Adams (2008, Inc. 311) think otherwise, they say that "The gray and white forms recall those of the region, but they remain resolutely modern."
Summary and conclusion

In any project that is undertaken by man there must be challenges and so did the design of Suzhou museum face challenges. The first challenge was on the location which was at the historic district of the city and this would necessitate the moving or destruction of some traditional houses, obviously the residents complained. Pei was lectured by government officials, despite the respect they had for him, he was instructed to make the museum modern but…...

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References

Barboza, D. "I. M. Pei in China, revisiting roots," the New York Times, 2006,

  (Accessed May 12, 2010).http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/arts/design/09pei.html?_r=1 

Bryant, S. "I. M. Pei and the new Suzhou museum," Hub pages, 2009,

  (Accessed May 12, 2010).http://hubpages.com/hub/I-M-Pei-and-the-New-Suzhou-Museum