During the 1200s, Marco Polo, an (1) Italian traveler and trader, brought Westerners some of (2) their first substantial information about Chinese life and customs. Marco and his father, Niccolo Polo, spent (3) several years in the court of the Chinese Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, returning to Venice in 1295. (4) Among the Chinese (5) customs described by Polo (6) were the use of coal as fuel, the use of paper money, and Kublai Khan’s extensive postal system. Polo dictated (7) a book, Description of the World. (8) Because printing had not been invented in Europe (a form of printing was (9) already in use in China), the book was available only in hand written copies. The book had a widespread (10) effect in Europe and helped to introduce a number of Chinese innovations to the West.