700 years ago, in about 1260, the first Europeans (11) to China. They were two brothers, businessmen from Venice in Italy. When they reached China they were welcomed by (12) , and they stayed there for some time before returning home.
(13) later they made a second journey to China. One of them took his son along, a young man called Marco Polo.
The Polo family spent many years in China. Marco’s father and uncle became rich (14) Marco himself worked for the emperor, becoming one of his advisers, and traveling to (15) other countries in South-East Asia on official business.