Marco Polo referred to Chengdu as Sindafu (variously spelled in different editions as "Sin-din-fu". &c.) which was certainly Ch'eng-Tu-Fu (Chengdu), the capital of Sichuan province. Cf. Polo, Chapter XLIV: Concerning the Province and City of Sindafu. See Henry Yule; Henri Cordier (translators and editors), The Travels of Marco Polo, v.2, the complete Yule-Cordier edition. "Let us now speak of a great Bridge which crosses this River within the city. This bridge is of stone; it is seven paces in width and half a mile in length (the river being that much in width as I told you); and all along its length on either side there are columns of marble to bear the roof, for the bridge is roofed over from end to end with timber, and that all richly painted. And on this bridge there are houses in which a great deal of trade and industry is carried on. But these houses are all of wood merely, and they are put up in the morning and taken down in the evening. Also there stands upon the bridge the Great Kaan's _Comercque_, that is to say, his custom-house, where his toll and tax are levied."
