For these reasons I formerly rejected Shao-hing, and looked rather to Fu-yang as the representative of Tanpiju.  But my opinion is shaken when I find both Mr. Elias and Baron Richthofen decidedly opposed to Fu-yang, and the latter altogether in favour of Shao-hing.  “The journey through a plenteous region, passing a succession of dwellings and charming gardens; the epithets ‘great, rich, and fine city’; the ’trade, manufactures, and handicrafts,’ and the ‘necessaries in great plenty and cheapness,’ appear to apply rather to the populous plain and the large city of ancient fame, than to the small Fu-yang hien ... shut in by a spur from the hills, which would hardly have allowed it in former days to have been a great city.” (Note by Baron R.) The after route, as elucidated by the same authority, points with even more force to Shao-hing.

[Mr. G. Phillips has made a special study of the route from Kinsay to Zaytun in the T’oung Pao, I. p. 218 seq. (The Identity of Marco Polo’s Zaitun with Changchau).  He says (p. 222):  “Leaving Hangchau by boat for Fuhkien, the first place of importance is Fuyang, at 100 li from Hangchau.  This name does not in any way resemble Polo’s Ta Pin Zu, but I think it can be no other.”  Mr. Phillips writes (pp. 221-222) that by the route he describes, he “intends to follow the highway which has been used by travellers for centuries, and the greater part of which is by water.”  He adds:  “I may mention that the boats used on this route can be luxuriously fitted up, and the traveller can go in them all the way from Hangchau to Chinghu, the head of the navigation of the Ts’ien-t’ang River.  At this Chinghu, they disembark and hire coolies and chairs to take them and their luggage across the Sien-hia pass to Puching in Fuhkien.  This route is described by Fortune in an opposite direction, in his Wanderings in China, vol. ii. p. 139.  I am inclined to think that Polo followed this route, as the one given by Yule, by way of Shao-hing and Kin-hua by land, would be unnecessarily tedious for the ladies Polo was escorting, and there was no necessity to take it; more especially as there was a direct water route to the point for which they were making.  I further incline to this route, as I can find no city at all fitting in with Yenchau, Ramusio’s Gengiu, along the route given by Yule.”

In my paper on the Catalan Map (Paris, 1895) I gave the following itinerary:  Kinsay (Hang-chau), Tanpiju (Shao-hing fu), Vuju (Kin-hwa fu), Ghiuju (K’iu-chau fu), Chan-shan (Sui-chang hien), Cuju (Ch’u-chau), Ke-lin-fu (Kien-ning fu), Unken (Hu-kwan), Fuju (Fu-chau), Zayton (Kayten, Hai-t’au), Zayton (Ts’iuen-chau), Tyunju (Tek-hwa).