Probably the name used by Polo was
Sindu-fu, as we find Sindu in the G.T. near the end of the chapter.
But the same city is, I observe, called Thindafu by one of the Nepalese
embassies, whose itineraries Mr. Hodgson has given in the J.A.S.B. XXV.
488.
The modern French missions have a bishop in Ch'eng-tu fu, and the city has
been visited of late years by Mr. T.T. Cooper, by Mr. A. Wylie, by Baron
v. Richthofen, [Captain Gill, Mr. Baber, Mr. Hosie, and several other
travellers]. Mr. Wylie has kindly favoured me with the following
note: - "My notice all goes to corroborate Marco Polo. The covered bridge
with the stalls is still there, the only difference being the absence of
the toll-house. I did not see any traces of a tripartite division of the
city, nor did I make any enquiries on the subject during the 3 or 4 days I
spent there, as it was not an object with me at the time to verify Polo's
account. The city is indeed divided, but the division dates more than a
thousand years back. It is something like this, I should say [see
diagram]".[1]
[Illustration:
| - - - - - - |
| |
| - -| | - -| |
| B | | C | A |
|| || |
| |
||
A. The Great City.
B. The Little City.
C. The Imperial City.]
"The Imperial City (Hwang Ching) was the residence of the monarch Lew Pe
(i.e. Liu Pei of p. 32) during the short period of the 'Three Kingdoms'
(3rd century), and some relics of the ancient edifice still remain.
