Page "Ibn Battuta" Paragraph 38

On arriving in China in the year 1345, one of the first things he noted were the local artists and their mastery in making portraits of newly arrived foreigners.

Ibn Battuta also mentions Chinese cuisine and its usage of animals such as frogs.

While in Quanzhou he ascended the " Mount of the Hermit " and briefly visited a well-known Taoist monk.

From there he went north to Hangzhou, which he described as one of the largest cities he had ever seen, and he noted its charm, describing that the city sat on a beautiful lake and was surrounded by gentle green hills.

During his stay at Hangzhou he was particularly impressed by the large number of well-crafted and well-painted Chinese wooden ships, with colored sails and silk awnings, assembling in the canals.

Later he attended a banquet of the Yuan Mongol administrator of the city named Qurtai, who according to Ibn Battuta, was very fond of the skills of local Chinese conjurers.

He also described traveling further north, through the Grand Canal to Beijing, but as he neared the capital an internal power struggle among the Yuan Mongols erupted, causing Ibn Battuta and his Hui guides to return to the south coast.

On boarding a Chinese junk heading for Southeast Asia, Ibn Battuta was unfairly charged a hefty sum by the crew and lost much of what he had collected during his stay in China.

Ibn Battuta also reported " the rampart of Yajuj and Majuj " was " sixty days ' travel " from the city of Zeitun ( Quanzhou ); Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb notes that Ibn Battuta believed that Great Wall of China was built by Dhul-Qarnayn to contain Gog and Magog as mentioned in the Quran.