Note {2} — Chapter LXVIII

Note 2.—Happily, there is no doubt that this is Yang-chau, one of the oldest and most famous great cities of China. [Abulfeda (Guyard, II. ii. 122) says that Yang-chau is the capital of the Faghfûr of China, and that he is called Tamghâdj-khan.—H. C.] Some five-and-thirty years after Polo’s departure from China, Friar Odoric found at this city a House of his own Order (Franciscans), and three Nestorian churches. The city also appears in the Catalan Map as Iangio. Yang-chau suffered greatly in the T’aï-P’ing rebellion, but its position is an “obligatory point” for commerce, and it appears to be rapidly recovering its prosperity. It is the headquarters of the salt manufacture, and it is also now noted for a great manufacture of sweetmeats (See Alabaster’s Report, as above, p. 6.)