Abulfeda, whose Geography was terminated in 1321, had heard the real name of Zayton:  “Shanju” he calls it, “known in our time as Zaitun”; and again:  “Zaitun, i.e.  Shanju, is a haven of China, and, according to the accounts of merchants who have travelled to those parts, is a city of mark.  It is situated on a marine estuary which ships enter from the China Sea.  The estuary extends fifteen miles, and there is a river at the head of it.  According to some who have seen the place, the tide flows.  It is half a day from the sea, and the channel by which ships come up from the sea is of fresh water.  It is smaller in size than Hamath, and has the remains of a wall which was destroyed by the Tartars.  The people drink water from the channel, and also from wells.”

Friar Odoric (in China, circa 1323-1327, who travelled apparently by land from Chin-kalan, i.e.  Canton) says:  “Passing through many cities and towns, I came to a certain noble city which is called Zayton, where we Friars Minor have two Houses....  In this city is great plenty of all things that are needful for human subsistence.  For example, you can get three pounds and eight ounces of sugar for less than half a groat.  The city is twice as great as Bologna, and in it are many monasteries of devotees, idol-worshippers every man of them.  In one of those monasteries which I visited there were 3000 monks....  The place is one of the best in the world....  Thence I passed eastward to a certain city called Fuzo....  The city is a mighty fine one, and standeth upon the sea.”  Andrew of Perugia, another Franciscan, was Bishop of Zayton from 1322, having resided there from 1318.  In 1326 he writes a letter home, in which he speaks of the place as “a great city on the shores of the Ocean Sea, which is called in the Persian tongue Cayton (Cayton); and in this city a rich Armenian lady did build a large and fine enough church, which was erected into a cathedral by the Archbishop,” and so on.  He speaks incidentally of the Genoese merchants frequenting it.  John Marignolli, who was there about 1347, calls it “a wondrous fine sea-port, and a city of incredible size, where our Minor Friars have three very fine churches; ... and they have a bath also, and a fondaco which serves as a depot for all the merchants.”  Ibn Batuta about the same time says:  “The first city that I reached after crossing the sea was ZAITUN....  It is a great city, superb indeed; and in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin (Kimkha and Atlas), which are called from the name of the city Zatuniah; they are superior to the stuffs of Khansa and Kharbalik.  The harbour of Zaitun is one of the greatest in the world—­I am wrong; it is the greatest!  I have seen there about an hundred first-class junks together; as for small ones, they were past counting.  The harbour is formed by an estuary which runs inland from the sea until it joins the Great River.”