'It Is Built On The Banks
Of The River, And Has A Picturesque Hill Behind It.' Milne, Who Also
Visited It, Mentions It In His Life In China (P. 258), And Says:
'At the
southern end of the suburbs of Lan-Ki the river divides into two branches,
the one to the left on south-east leading direct to Kinhua.' Milne's
description of the place is almost identical with Polo's, when speaking of
the division of the river.
There are in Fuchau several Lan-Khi
shopkeepers, who deal in hams, dates, etc., and these men tell me the city
from the river has the appearance of being built on a hill, but the houses
on the hill are chiefly temples. I would divide the name as follows, Zen
gi an; the last syllable an most probably represents the modern Hien,
meaning District city, which in ancient Chinese was pronounced Han,
softened by the Italians into an. Lan-Khi was a Hien in Polo's day."
- H.C.]
Kin-hwa fu, as Pauthier has observed, bore at this time the name of
WU-CHAU, which Polo would certainly write Vugiu. And between Shao-hing
and Kin-hwa there exists, as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, a line of
depression which affords an easy connection between Shao-hing and Lan-ki
hien or Kin-hwa fu. This line is much used by travellers, and forms just 3
short stages. Hence Kin-hwa, a fine city destroyed by the T'ai-P'ings, is
satisfactorily identified with Vugiu.
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