Marco Polo, Liar

Did Marco Polo actually ever make it to China? In their Mysteries of History double issue (WARNING: They consider “Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays?” one such “mystery”), U.S. News & World Report says maybe not:

Now, seven centuries later, Polo’s credibility again is under attack. According to critics, he never even set foot in China. Had he been there, they argue, he would have reported important aspects of 13th-century Chinese life that went unmentioned. Among his omissions: tea drinking, calligraphy, the binding of women’s feet to keep them small, and, most glaring, the Great Wall of China.