Semedo (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

The Travels of Marco Polo

Note 10.—Public carriages are still used in the great cities of the north, such as Peking. Possibly this is a revival. At one time carriages appear to have been much more general in China than they were afterwards, or are now. Semedo says they were abandoned in China just about the time that they were adopted in Europe, viz. in the 16th century. And this disuse seems to have been either cause or effect of the neglect of the roads, of which so high an account is given in old times. (Semedo; N. and Q. Ch. and Jap. I. 94.)