So, I was just messing whit a fun little page called geacron.com that allows you to just pick a year and see the political borders of that year as well as some important events. The thing is that between 1255 and 1295 two lines that aren't explained in any way go from Venice to Beijing and then from Venice to eastern China and around Indochina back to Venice, and I was wondering what it was.
Edit: The second trip was Marco Polo, but the first one I don't know.
Well, we know that Marco Polo's father and uncle visited China once for sure and operated in the reason north of the Black Sea.
Giovanni da Plan del Carpine made it to the Mongol court from Europe. Not quite Beijing, but there you go.
William of Rubrick, a Franciscan made it to Karakorum, account found here https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/rubruck.html.
John of Monte Corvino also made it to China in the early 14th Century.
The Pegolotti manual describes how to get to China, but it doesn't indicate how common such a journey was and the author certainly didn't go.
Rabban Sawma made the reverse journey. His account can be found here, http://www.aina.org/books/mokk/mokk.htm.
Although commerce was carried about between Venice and China, this trade was largely segmentary, with merchants traveling shorter distances and selling their goods to other merchants who would then resell it further west or vice versa.
Wasn't that Marco Polo?