The European explorer who traveled to Asia around 1271 CE and documented his experiences was Marco Polo, an Italian merchant and writer from the Republic of Venice. His travels and experiences in Asia are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo, also known as Book of the Marvels of the World and Il Milione, which gave Europeans their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other Asian cities and countries. Polo spent 17 years in China, serving as Kublai Khan's foreign emissary and going on many diplomatic missions throughout the empire and Southeast Asia, such as in present-day Burma, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. His account of the Orient provided Europeans with a clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs, and he was the first Westerner to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience.