Throughout history, people all over the world have interacted with each other. People explored lands to see other people's cultures around the world. Trade also played an important role in how cultures interacted and learned from each other. This especially applied between the years 500 to 1500 AD During this time the world did a lot of trade and because of this the cultures mixed and took pieces from each other. In one way or another cultures, over time, were forming an idea of ​​the world around them. Travel and trade exposed cultures, around the world, to each other and meant that cultures were able to expand their horizons with cross-cultural interaction. Marco Polo first published The Travels of Marco Polo in Europe in 1299. The Travels of Marco Polo shows the European view of Kinsay, a land where Marco Polo traveled. It provides many different facts about Kinsay; such as the fact that they wore silk, that the markets had a wide range of fruits and vegetables, and that the natives were very kind to visitors. This shows that travel was not just for trade, but also for people to learn about other people's cultures. Marco Polo even went so far as to note that Kinsay has 3,000 toilets. Looking at the text, however, it must be noted that Marco Polo was not actually from Kinsay. All the information he wrote down was either told to him or he himself witnessed it. This leaves many questions as it is not possible to know everything about a culture you are simply visiting. The Western Region Document, by Xuanzang in China during the seventh century, is also an example of one culture's lifestyle written down by someone from a different culture. In Record of the Western Region, Xuanzang writes about how in India villages have internal doors, schools for Buddhist studies have different teachers, and that they have a caste system. Again, this is another writing that focuses on people's lives in general. There is no real purpose other than to explain how culture works. As with The Travels of Marco Polo, RecordThe Travels of Marco Polo and Record of the Western Region are two of the previously mentioned works that focus on travel and learning about culture. Another piece that focuses on information about a culture is Travels in Asia and Africa. Travels in Asia and Africa, written by Ibn Battuta in 1354. The writing actually goes deeper than the people who were there. Ibn Battuta actually lists the qualities he liked most and what he disliked about the cultures he visited. In Travels in Asia and Africa, Battuta states that he likes that the people of Malli wear clean clothes on Fridays and are zealous in relying on the Quran. He goes on to say that he doesn't like it when they put ash on their heads as a sign of respect and that women walk around naked. What Ibn Battuta considered good and bad qualities is probably different than what anyone else would have thought. One must realize that Ibn Battuta did not come from that culture and had his own culture influencing his thinking. How one perceives a different culture is often not completely open. A final example of cross-cultural interaction is in “Peoples of the Silk Road,” a 9th-century painting found in the Mogao Caves in China. Many different types of people can be seen in the painting. This is demonstrated through the different ways people are